


One Day at a Time

by jarynw02



Category: Dragon Ball, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: AND GOD SAID LET THERE BE FLUFF, AND THEYRE OUT FOLKS, Accidental Bonding, BAMF Uraraka Ochako, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Bakugou Katsuki is a Good Friend, Cute Uraraka Ochako, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Heartache, Here we go, Hyperbolic Time Chamber | The Room of Spirit and Time, Not So Platonic Bed Sharing, Platonic Bed Sharing, Rejection, SO MUCH FLUFF, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Soft Bakugou Katsuki, Training, Tsundere Bakugou Katsuki, Uraraka Ochako-centric, WE ARE FAST & FURIOUS IN THIS HOUSE, like i'm having an existential fluff crisis and dumping it all here, lmfao what slow burn, no beta we die like men, real shit ahead, this is an accidental flufffest, ummmm is fluffy smut a thing, where are the fluff tags oops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:34:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 75,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23151028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jarynw02/pseuds/jarynw02
Summary: Uraraka Ochako & Bakugou Katsuki spend a year together in the hyperbolic time chamber by random draw. When they emerge after one day on the outside, Class 2A notices some immediate differences:-Bakugou is taller.-Uraraka is ripped.-Why are they holding hands?
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Uraraka Ochako
Comments: 2230
Kudos: 2448
Collections: fics I probably cried to while reading





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AHA IT EXISTS!
> 
> This was born as a twitter thread...
> 
> @ me - jarynw02
> 
> & if you're here from twitter I LOVE YOU GUYS THANKS FOR SUPPORTING ME!

“It’s not you, Uraraka.”

Pricks of shameful tears stung beneath her eyes. She blinked them away, losing her gaze in a void beyond the lockerroom of shoes, suddenly all too keen on how many others were around. 

“It’s just,” Midoriya went on, “I mean, I- I like you and all.” His cheeks were burning with embarrassment, an emotion that had already passed through Ochako and left her in a wide, hollow wake. “But I was distracted yesterday in class. I’ve been distracted by you in hero training before a-and,” he stuttered, reaching for his limp elbow across his body, “well, I just can’t have any distractions. I just don’t think it’s in my destiny. You know-- l-love.”

Ochako made little move to respond. They were friends -- best friends. When others had faded into the background of group chats and busy schedules between their first and second year, she and Midoriya had kept in close contact. She had thought… She had thought she could finally see that he liked her too. 

She wasn’t sure where this left her. 

Finally confessing was a weight off her chest, but being rejected was bizarre. There was a sharp stab in what pride she had and an open wound slowly leaking out thick disappointment like ichor. At the same time, there was a realness to his words, more so than their simple validity. It was as if his rejection confirmed something in her she already knew and hadn’t wanted to face. 

A future with Deku wasn’t a future for her. 

It hurt, but it felt right -- like she was still on the right path. 

Still, it was difficult to look him in the eyes without a swell of tears threatening to upend her morning even further. 

“Ura--”

“No,” she interrupted. “It’s fine, Deku. You’re right.”

His eyes widened, pain and fear bright as day behind them. “I-”

“Hello Midoriya! Uraraka!” a cheerful Iida breezed in, finding his locker on instinct and slipping out of his shoes. “It’s wonderful to see you again. Are you excited for second year?”

“Uh, y- yeah, for sure,” Midoriya stumbled, turning halfway toward their engine-quirked friend. 

Ochako took advantage of the distraction. “I’ll see you guys in class,” she said quickly, eyeing her retreat. “Good to see you too Iida!” she called out over her shoulder as she dipped from the large room lined with square cubbies into the hallway that led to the main entrance. 

Iida would worry about her sudden exit. Midoriya would too and would also probably try to talk to her about this again before the end of the day. She groaned inwardly. If there was one thing she wanted to avoid for the rest of today it was a repeat of this disaster of a conversation. 

Class 2A was almost no different than Class 1A had been. There was a light color scheme alteration in the new room, a new seating chart, and, oh yeah, Shinsou was--  _ whoa _ , Shinsou was really there. In her class. 

She wondered who he was replacing. 

Her seat was now second from the back, a small improvement on last year. She smiled and waved to everyone as she made her way through the aisle, not realizing how much she was forcing it until she sat down next to Kirishima. There was no way she couldn’t give Kirishima a genuine smile. The boy was the sun and she was grateful to have him so close to her this year. It would come in handy to have a little mood booster always at the ready. 

“Uraraka, sweet!” Kirishima cheered, offering a gentle fist bump that Ochako tentatively returned. “This year is going to be even better than last, don’t you think?” 

He was infectious. She grinned, the pain of this morning waning, curling up in a dark corner in her chest -- likely to wait until she went to bed tonight to once again rear its ugly head. “Yeah, Kiri,” she answered casually. “I’m really glad I get to sit by--”

“For fuck’s sake, I need sunglasses to sit this close to you two.”

Oh. Right. Bakugou was sitting behind her. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t like Bakugou. She actually didn’t mind his ‘bakurage’, finding it rather comforting in a distorted way— as if the world could keep turning as long as he was barking angry. What kept her from being glad to sit by him for the rest of the year was the pressure his presence put on her. 

Around Bakugou, everyone had to be their best -- or he noticed. 

And called you out on it. 

“Bro, are you calling us hot?” Kirishima asked, his voice drenched in sarcasm and a bright, sinister smile across his face.

“I’ll kill you,” Bakugou threatened before, surprisingly, reclining in his seat and interlocking his fingers behind his head. “Guess I’ll need to invest in some damn good earplugs.”

Kirishima ignored him, turning back to Ochako. “I’m so excited,” he mused, enthusiasm bathing his voice in charisma. “Think of how much we all grew last year… and now we get to do it again?! Man,” he sighed, resting his chin in his cupped palm wistfully, “I can’t wait.”

Again, Ochako felt herself relax as a smile drifted lazily across her lips. “You’re right, Kirishima. I can’t wait either.”

“Tch,” she heard from behind them. 

Aizawa-Sensei’s entrance interrupted Kirishima’s conspiratorial side-glance at Ochako and she wondered what he was going to say about his blonde friend’s attitude. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Aizawa said, somehow looking even more exhausted than last year. Ochako idly wondered how Eri was doing. “Welcome back. Whatever.”

“We missed you, Sensei!” Mina chirped from the front row beside Midoriya. Ochako was glad to have some space between their seats, but not so glad that he was directly in her line of sight. 

“No you didn’t,” Aizawa said in return, clearly unamused. “Alright, you all know the drill by now; I’m not giving you any special instructions—”

Iida’s hand shot up and yet he spoke anyway. “No syllabus, Sensei?”

“God no,” Aizawa practically gasped, appalled at such a thought. “We’re just going to do another quirk assessment test to compare yourselves to last year.”

A blend of cheers and sighs rolled through the class. 

“I do have one announcement though,” he added like an afterthought. 

Ochako tapped her fingerpads in rhythm in her lap, leaning forward a bit. Her emotions were a lot today. She could practically taste her restless energy. 

“UA was invited to participate in a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ by means of a random draw. Years ago, a quirk scientist created something called the hyperbolic time chamber,” Aizawa told them and as soon as the term was spoken, a weighted silence passed through the room. Ochako’s eyes slipped over to Kirishima, but he didn’t seem to have recognition in his eyes. 

Midoriya, of course, must have though because his hand raised tentatively. “As in the room that alters time? It’s used as the most aggressive form of physical and mental training available across the world. With the way it shifts minutes into hours then one day in—”

“Yes,” Aizawa confirmed, interrupting the beginnings of a Midoriya ramble. “It’s highly rare for anyone to be allowed to use the chamber and even then they’re only given a few minutes of real time which translates to hours within.”

“Whoa,” Kaminari gasped from the same seat as Ochako, but on the opposite side of the room. 

“Sensei,” Iida said like a gasp, almost in reverence. “Are we going to be allowed the privilege of using the chamber?”

“No.”

The class paled, some slipping back in their seats with their tense hope being cast aside. 

“The school was allowed to give two students access for the first study of spending one full day within,” Aizawa explained, the creeping feeling reenergizing the room. 

“W-wouldn’t that be a whole year for those inside?” Yaoyorozu piped up with a cautiously raised hand. 

“Yes,” Aizawa answered, more patient with the class’ outbursts than usual. “As a staff, we decided to turn this into a random drawing of one student in the hero courses who will be allowed to choose their companion for the year they will spend inside the time-distorting training facility.”

This time Kirishima raised his hand and actually waited for Aizawa to nod his approval before speaking. “Why does the one person get to choose? Why aren’t both people randomly drawn?”

Aizawa seemed to think this was a good question as his mood softened. “Because of the amount of stress this will put the two under, we wanted to allow the chosen to decide who they wanted to go through the experiment with.” His sullen eyes searched the class for anymore bouts of frantic questions before he continued. “We have already drawn before classes began.”

A stunned silence followed his words. Ochako steadied her breath, realizing even she was getting worked up at the thought of receiving a year’s worth of training in a single day. Maybe if Tsu or Iida won they might take her… but it was hard to believe such a thing when they could choose Midoriya. She leaned back against her chair, letting her hopes fade away. 

“Uraraka Ochako,” Aizawa Sensei said and time slowed. 

The class turned in their desks, all eyes falling on her, but she only felt the weight of a green-haired boy watching her with such broken intent. 

Her lips parted and she shifted in her seat, straightening her spine under the pressure of the class. 

“You were drawn amongst all three years of hero course students. You have until curfew tonight to choose your companion and the two of you will be taken to the hyperbolic time chamber tomorrow after lunch.”

Her? 

It was really going to be her?

Immediately she thought of everyone who would have desperately wanted to be chosen — everyone who trained tirelessly already and would have benefitted so much from an extra year of growth. But…

She wanted to be chosen too. She wanted to improve too. She wanted to be a force this year. She didn’t want to continue on in a shadow, in the background. She wanted to step up, wanted to be more. She wanted to be...

A hero.

Not just a sidekick. 

Her pulse beat in her ears and she clenched her jaw, wrestling with the adrenaline coursing through her. 

“Yes, Sensei,” she heard herself say as she tucked pieces of hair behind her ear a little too quickly. 

Aizawa watched her for a moment longer before addressing the class once more. “Okay then. Everyone — gym suits, outside, ten minutes,” he said before turning to drag his feet out of the room. 

“WHAT.”

“Wow.”

“Uraraka!”

“That’s amazing!”

“You have to pick me.”

The last voice was uncharacteristically hushed, but strong nevertheless. She was sure that no one else heard over all their own exclamations over her news, but she definitely heard it. 

Ochako dipped her chin to look over her shoulder where a steaming Bakugou eyed her with a seriousness she’d only seen from him during battle— his red eyes boring into her skull. She opened her mouth to answer, not sure what to say, when Kirishima set a hand on her desk. 

“C’mon guys,” he said. “We need to get outside.”

She was starting to think Kirishima might become one of her best friends this year. 

Peeling out of her chair, she rushed to put her things away in a locker before beelining to the girls’ locker room. Changing in a back corner of the web of lockboxes, she hoped that she might evade anyone else bombarding her over the whole thing. Sure, it was a big deal, but was it really going to drive her class to pressure her into taking them with her?

She changed and fled the locker room as the other girls were entering, calling after her retreating form. 

The quirk assessment was identical to the year before, though for Ochako the main difference was her choice in company. Last year she’d hung around Iida and Midoriya out of early familiarity from the entrance exam, either simply waiting for their turns or making observational conversation. 

This year she avoided them. After this morning, she wanted a little space from Midoriya and sadly Iida, Tsu, and Todoroki happened to be caught in the crossfire. They quickly seemed to realize something was wrong as their eyes slipped over to her across the gathered class near the throwing field, but that only encouraged Ochako to continue to avoid them. She wasn’t ready to explain her distance either.

That’s how she found herself with Mina and Kirishima. They were already close enough friends that it wasn’t too strange to see Ochako in their midst. What was strange, however, was the way Bakugou lingered at Ochako’s side, despite their lack of acknowledging one another. Kaminari, Sero, and occasionally Jirou would linger in the group as well, though their conversation was rowdier and less… focused on the task at hand. 

“Okay, but, like,” Sero said, raising his eyebrows expectantly, “it’s a year spent alone together.”

“No classes,” Kaminari added. 

“No teachers.”

“No rules.”

Sero elbowed Kirishima, egging him into the conversation. “With  _ Uraraka _ .”

Kirishima rubbed his arm tenderly where Sero’s tape mounting hit him. 

“Guys,” Mina scolded. “She’s right there.”

Ochako looked between them all with apprehension. 

“I’m just saying,” Kaminari said raising his hands in a placating gesture, “that it’s basically a vacation.”

“Tch,” Bakugou scoffed, his fury a bit more palpable than it had been this morning. “You morons would waste the entire year on sleeping and jacking off.”

Ochako looked away to hide her blush. 

“And I think you guys would get bored,” Kirishima joined in. “I mean, there’s probably not video games and junk food waiting for you in there.”

“Plus it’s just you and one other person…” Mina said slowly, like you’d tell a kid a scary story. “For  _ a year _ .” 

A hand fell on Ochako’s shoulder. “Man, that sucks. I’m sorry,” Kaminari consoled her, his tone heavy.

“She’ll probably pick Midoriya though,” Sero said. “So there’s not really much we can say to plead a case.”

Ochako visibly stiffened and the group quieted, Kaminari’s hand falling away. She could admit that if this had happened yesterday, she probably would have asked Midoriya. And that would have probably made for a miserable year for her. She could imagine Midoriya’s relentless training and analyzing and planning and theorizing and casting her aside completely in the name of his future. It wasn’t that she needed to choose someone for this project that would work with her constantly, but just the thought of  _ Deku  _ being the one she’d have to be alone with day and night for a year knowing what she knows now… 

Maybe his rejection was for the better.

She sucked in a deep breath. 

“I haven’t decided anything yet,” she told the group who had been suspiciously silent since her poor reaction to the mention of her crush. “I want to choose someone who will improve with me as much as we possibly can.”

She wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it, but she thought she saw Bakugou tighten a fist at his side before letting it go.

The tests passed along with predictability. It had been much more exciting last year when they were still learning about one another, but now it was extremely predictable how everyone would fare. 

Midoriya had been the most improved by far -- though that had been unsurprising to anyone. 

Ochako was faster and stronger, but her improvements were minimal. She was disappointed, only making the weight of her decision tonight even more of a burden. A full schoolday later and she was no closer to figuring out who would be the best fit for the year together in the hyperbolic time chamber. 

The few she’d been considering the most had surprised her and she had pros and cons. 

Shinsou was her most unusual consideration, but she had to admit that if anyone could benefit from the year of training with her, it was the boy who had missed out on an entire first year with the rest of them. His scores in the quirk assessment hadn’t been terrible by quirkless standards, but it was noticeable how frustrated he was with feeling behind everyone else. Her selfishness held her back from committing to choosing him though. 

What would training with Shinsou have to offer her? She needed to be making this choice for her own benefit above everything else. 

She wanted out of Midoriya’s shadow once and for all. 

Shoji, Ojiro, and Kirishima were also on her list of considerations. She got along with Shoji well enough and Ojiro would certainly know how to train her to fight. Kirishima was a safe choice for someone she felt she could stand for a full year. Yaoyorozu would be a beneficial partner in the extreme conditions and she knew that Kyouka would love the time to develop her quirk just as much as Ochako would. 

But despite all her mullings, she knew there was one person her mind kept drifting back to.

“Uraraka?”

Ochako froze midstep down the winding sidewalk that split the crisp green grass of the campus lawn. 

Midoriya caught up to her with ease, his wide, bright eyes alight in the slowly setting sun. Curfew was creeping up on her too soon. She wasn’t ready. 

She wasn’t ready to face Midoriya yet either.

“Hey,” he said carefully. 

She tugged on the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “Hey.”

His gaze dropped to their feet as they continued toward the dorm, a pregnant silence thickening the air between them. 

“I know this isn’t the best day,” he said finally. 

Ochako counted the lines of the cement squares they stepped over, careful not to let her pink sneaker land on a crack. 

“But I hope that we’re still best friends,” he went on and Ochako’s heart clenched. “I hope that you’ll choose me to work with you in the time chamber.”

Ochako didn’t respond at first. 

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…

She sighed. 

“I don’t know what to think about any of it right now, Deku,” she answered. 

And it was the truth. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him now. There was a peace and a pain. More than anything, she knew that things would not be the same between them. Not anymore.

“So,” he paused, “you haven’t made a choice then?” 

For a brief second, she hated him for only caring about the time chamber. 

“Oi!” a sharp voice came from the mouth of Heights Alliance just as they’d rounded the outer wall. Bakugou descended the stone steps before the front doors lazily, hands in his pockets. “Beat it, Deku. I need to talk to Roundface.”

“Kacchan,” Midoriya started before Ochako cut him off in a rush.

“No, I--” she hesitated. “I want to talk to him.” Deliberately, she turned to Midoriya whose lips had parted and brows had knit. “I think we’ve said all we need to say here,” she said softly. “For now.”

Midoriya’s mouth popped shut. “Okay then.” With a skeptical glance toward Bakugou, he stepped past him to retreat inside the dorms. 

Leaving her standing face to face with Bakugou Katsuki at sunset. 

“You have to fucking pick me, Uraraka.”

Ochako looked at her classmate with a new lens. She had always been fully aware of the machine that was Bakugou -- they all were. But she had seen the evolution of his creativity in a fight last year. His tenacity and clinical ability to maintain self-discipline despite his fiery nature. He wasn’t going to win a congeniality award anytime soon and she was sure he would be difficult to be alone with for so long, but the benefit of his presence in a brutal training environment couldn’t be ignored. 

She remembered her grief this morning realizing that he was sitting behind her this year in class -- that just him being able to witness her every move meant she would always have to be at her very best. 

He wouldn’t tolerate anything less than her using every minute spent in the time chamber to better herself -- to attempt to keep up to his greatness. 

She would just have to take things with him one day at a time.

She swallowed, thick and slow, meeting his glowing red eyes. 

“I was already going to.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Hyperbolic Time Chamber comes from Dragon Ball Z and was used as a means of speed/intensive training. I don't remember the exact formula for the time difference but I believe one minute in the real world is six hours inside the chamber. It's also a giant mind fuck because it's this massive void white space that you can get lost and die in, BUT I HAVENT DECIDED IF I WILL MAKE ALTERATIONS TO THE INTERIOR AT THIS POINT.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uraraka questions herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW ok um 
> 
> HI THANK YOU FOR LIKING MY IDEA GUYS!
> 
> Literally I could cry from all the comments. They're my favorite thing and so infinitely encouraging. This one's for you guys!!

Uraraka Ochako’s duffel bag was staring at her. 

It sat helplessly in the corner of her room, dim light from the creeping sunrise filtering in through the glass of her balcony doors. Aizawa-Sensei had knocked on her door last night to ask who she’d selected to accompany her in the hyperbolic time chamber. Briefly, she’d seen him raise a single brow at her choice, but he’d dropped it quickly and remained composed to give her a single piece of paper. With little fanfare, he’d retreated to deliver an identical letter to the boy she’d be spending a time-distorted year with.

Bakugou Katsuki. 

The packing list was short: two weeks worth of comfortable training clothes (all-weather) and one personal effect. 

Now her shorts, tights, tanks, and a single jacket were squared away with her unmentionables beneath the thick layers of pink canvas, all hidden with a rusty old zipper. Her personal effect had been more difficult to choose than she’d expected, her nerves making her hands shake as she picked up piece after piece from around her room. Finally resolving to bring her faded orange t-shirt with the logo of her parents’ construction company, she’d finished. 

The belongings sat in a lump against the wall, their stagnant presence whispering to her with silent cries of anticipation at what was to come for them. 

Her alarm sounded, jolting through her and her hand flew instinctively to shut it off. She’d already been awake for a few hours now, dressed and ready, watching for the break of dawn. Straightening her back from the slouch that had formed while sitting on the edge of her bed, she stretched and stood. 

With a conscious intake of breath, she gave her bag one last look before she headed out the door and into the day ahead. 

-X-

Getting to class early had been a mistake. She’d planned out her escape from the dorms just after dawn to avoid running into anyone downstairs or on the walk across campus to the educational building. What she hadn’t accounted for was that being the first one in class meant that, for every single person who came in after her, she was a sitting duck. 

The realization struck her like a freakin’ Howitzer Impact the moment Iida stepped in the otherwise empty room. 

Crap.

Crap crap crap.

A glint flared off his half-rimmed glasses when he saw her, only hesitating for less than a second before making his way over. He was somehow taller than last year and while Ochako was good friends with him, she was feeling a bit intimidated by their height difference -- or maybe it was the fact that she was trapped sitting at her desk and waiting for him to come to confront her. 

“Uraraka,” he said formally as if a bow might follow. She fought off images of herself curtsying in return. “We haven’t really gotten to talk much.”

She watched him reach for the strap of his bag across his chest with both hands as she nodded. “Yeah,” she mumbled. “Sorry about that.”

Iida dipped his chin, but a slight smile eased some of Ochako’s guilt. “It’s alright. Friendship is a two-way street. How have you been holding up since yesterday?” 

Suddenly she was wondering what taking Iida into the time chamber would have been like. Their enthusiasm always fed off one another -- one of the reasons they’d grown so close last year. He was also quite resilient and disciplined. 

He’d also probably plan out her meals and sleep schedule. 

Ochako shoved out a gush of air, heavier than a sigh. “Um, honestly?” 

“Of course.”

She thought of her duffel bag waiting in the corner of her dorm room. “I’m… nervous.” She wouldn’t say scared. Never scared. But… “I don’t know a whole lot about the time chamber and a year sounds completely unreal. I guess it all just hasn’t completely hit me yet?” She reached for a longer piece of her hair around her face, twirling it around her finger. “And, well, I do realize how big of an opportunity this is and I just want to make the best of it, you know?”

Iida bobbed his head along with her words. “Absolutely,” he affirmed. “I know that your relationships -- both family and friends -- are vital to you, Uraraka. But as one of those friends, I would suggest marching forward through this just for you.”

Her shoulders relaxed at his attempt to console her. She hadn’t even noticed she’d been tense. Popping a knee out from under her desk she moved to stand before enveloping Iida in a hug that he very hesitantly reciprocated. 

Pulling back, she apologized, “Sorry, Iida. I think I might have forgotten what great advice you give.” He smiled at her praise, regaining his composure from her somewhat brash affection. “Promise it won’t happen again.”

“It’s alright,” he said softly.

Iida had made his way to his seat in the opposite corner of the classroom from her as soon as others started to join them. Most of which proceeded to crowd around Ochako’s desk. 

“Uraraka, you’ll have to journal about everything so we can all read about it when you come back,” Hagakure said almost like a cheer, clapping her unseeable hands together with a soft smack. 

“Oui! We must hear every detail!” Aoyama agreed, his eyes glittering. 

Tokoyami was brooding nearly standing directly behind her, but the peripheral view still sent a quick chill up her neck. “I’ve heard that the conditions will be fighting against you the entire time, though it’s unconfirmed due to the lack of pros who’ve gone inside being willing to share.”

“You’ll do great, Ochako,” Tsu said soothingly with a wide smile on her face.

Mina slammed her hands down on the surface of Ochako’s desk. “Okay, but who did you pick?!” she shouted and all the others stiffened. 

“You can’t just ask her that, Ashido.” Kirishima wove his way through the gathering, planting himself in his seat beside Ochako’s. “The only time it’s manly to interrogate is upon an arrest.”

“Well, actually--” Jirou started. 

Mina turned an accusatory finger into Kirishima’s face. “You  _ know  _ don’t you? How else could you be so calm?” 

“Hey,” Kirishima muttered, raising a hand to his heart as if he was physically hurt. “I’m just saying--”

“Why the fuck are you extras in my way?”

Sighs and grunts made rounds through the still-standing members of the class and they all filed away one by one to their seats as a  _ very  _ irritated Bakugou waited for his desk to be clear. However there were no crackles of imminent explosions or threats of death, so Ochako supposed he was actually in a pretty good mood. 

_ Good _ , she thought.  _ He should be. _

They hadn’t further discussed her choice last night beyond Bakugou seeming somewhat shocked before throwing a  _ fine  _ at her and heading back inside. 

It was obviously going to be a breezy, stressfree year in complete isolation. 

Aizawa-Sensei entered shortly after Bakugou was seated. He dragged his way through some basic announcements, including their new class schedule for the year. He handed out paper copies, already moving on to the next topic before one reached Ochako. It was after he’d finished listing the new expectations of second years that he brought up the chamber. 

“You all will be allowed to give an entertainment item to each of the two going into the Hyberbolic Time Chamber this afternoon. Make sure it’s approved by lunch -- use your transition times to plan something.”

A hand shot up.

“No, Kaminari, an entire game system cannot be taken into The Room of Spirit and Time,” Aizawa drolled.

Still, his hand remained. 

Aizawa was growing less and less amused -- which was really saying something because Ochako would have definitely not called him amused when he’d first stepped foot in the classroom. “You realize there will be no internet in a time chamber?” he asked incredulously. 

“No no,” Kaminari said, finally settling back in his seat after excitedly bouncing up to be called on. “That’s not it. We just wanna know who Uraraka picked.”

“I mean, we’ve gotta know who to prepare the gifts for, Sensei,” Mina added with a sweet smile. 

Aizawa glared between the two. Finally, he groaned out a sigh. “Uraraka and Bakugou will be going through the time chamber training. Make your gift choices and remember you’ll literally see them tomorrow.”

Ochako had done a pretty good job avoiding even  _ thinking  _ about Deku this morning. She hadn’t paid any mind to him when he came into class and sat down without looking over in her direction. She’d let her eyes glaze over him as she listened to Aizawa’s lecturing. 

But now she could plainly see the way his shoulders dropped, chin falling to his chest as his neck bent in her view. 

Why did she feel so guilty?

Luckily, Kirishima was there to save the day. He elbowed her gently across the narrow aisle, smiling as he said, “Good choice.”

Ochako rolled her eyes at him playfully. 

Classes moved along without incident. That is, aside from the mercifully brief transition periods when everyone would huddle together at Kaminari or Iida’s desks to discuss the entertainment gifts. She and Bakugou would stay seated and silent. Eventually, she started to lay her head down on her crossed arms, hoping to power nap through the excessive display of planning. 

She never wanted to hear Sero arguing with one of Shouji’s limb-mouths about the merits of plastic, packable miniature golf ever again. 

And then lunch rolled around. 

Everyone herded away from their lockers at the back of the room in groups, shuffling off toward the cafeteria. 

Ochako lingered around her desk before her body seemed to follow along behind her friends while her mind was lost elsewhere. The anticipation was becoming palpable; it was a giddy feeling that clenched her heart with the beat of adrenaline. One more meal and then she was being taken away to a sacred training that would likely change her life. The idea of how monumental this was still seemed foreign, like distant dream in the back of your memories or a wish cast upon a star years ago. 

She had really been chosen. 

This special thing -- it was really going to happen to her. 

“Ochako?” Tsuyu’s voice cut through the fog of voices building through the cafeteria and Ochako snapped out of her thoughts, her tension still tight in her shoulders. 

“Sorry, Tsu,” she answered. “I guess I’m a little distracted.”

Tsuyu nodded politely, eyes drifting ahead through the meal line as she stepped up to grab a tray. “That’s understandable, kero. Today is a big day for you.”

A pang of guilt bloomed in Ochako’s chest. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about my choice,” she explained, grabbing for a lunch setup behind Tsuyu as they shuffled forward. “There was so much to think about in so little--”

“It’s fine, Ochako,” Tsuyu assured her. “I’m sad that you didn’t choose me, but I understand why you’d want to train with one of our top three.”

Ochako sucked in a breath. The class had created their own, private top three during a night in the common room of the dorms: Todoroki, Bakugou, and Midoriya. Two of them were her close friends, making her choice for the third an obvious one, right?

_ Right _ , she told herself. 

They paid for their food and headed to their usual table from last year. 

“But,” Tsuyu said after their silent walk across the room, “it is hard to believe you’d choose Bakugou of all people.”

The heads of Iida, Todoroki, and Midoriya popped up around the table as the girls pulled out their chairs to sit. Iida shot Ochako a sympathetic glance, but she could see the slight hurt through his glasses. 

“I don’t think so.” Todoroki resumed chasing noodles in circles around his bowl the moment Ochako had taken the seat beside him, leaving Tsuyu next to Midoriya. “He’s an asshole, but this is about training right?”

Ochako nodded too enthusiastically while Midoriya avoided looking at her, preferring to watch Todoroki’s noodle chasing. 

“So as long as you’re okay with having zero fun, you’ll still learn a lot by paying attention to him,” Todoroki finished, dispassionately. 

Midoriya’s eyes flicked to Ochako. “That’s true,” he said solemnly. “Kacchan does have a lot to offer in terms of training experience.” When his story ended up being a single sentence, Iida frowned and exchanged a worried glance with Tsuyu who shrugged. 

“Sounds lonely.”

Ochako turned away from them and tried to eat. 

-X-

Aizawa-Sensei owned a car. 

Or maybe it was Present Mic’s? Ochako wasn’t sure, but it was hard to tell with Aizawa’s firm handle on the wheel and whipping turns while Present Mic committed himself to play DJ with the utmost sincerity. The upbeat music and miscellaneous dancing of their blonde teacher was a stark, awkward presence compared to the painful tension in the backseat and the stunt driving their homeroom teacher was pulling off. 

Ochako was stiff in the leather seat behind Aizawa. She was doing her best not to notice Bakugou death-glaring at Present Mic through the upholstered headrest, instead thinking about the two gifts their teachers had hidden with their belongings to be a surprise once they were on the inside. Their bags were about the same size and stacked between them, Ochako’s on top. She told herself not to read into that too much.

It was a long drive. 

Kami-Po Industries was a skyscraper a few towns away, one of the only tall buildings the smaller city had to offer making it seem extremely out of place. The silver rod of a structure had a single canopy over the whooshing front doors with red and tan detailing that matched an ornate entrance mat below. It softened the corporation’s intimidating presence just a tad. 

Ochako and Bakugou grabbed their bags and followed their haphazard teachers inside. 

The inside was clinical and uninspiring. Lobby chairs were littered along the walls, a receptionist sat behind a tall, silver desk that matched the building’s exterior. Ryuku’s agency was nearly as large, but much more personalized within. Ochako wondered what her work-study mentor would have to say about her going into the time chamber. 

Aizawa led the way, not stopping by reception, but heading straight for the row of elevators. 

If someone had told her two days ago that she would be in an elevator with Aizawa, Present Mic, and Bakugou for seventy floors she would have never believed them. She tightened her grip on the strap of her bag and tried not to bump into Bakugou who was aggressively staring at the floor monitor with his hands shoved in his pockets. 

When the elevator doors spread open, none of them made to exit for a beat. The top floor did  _ not  _ belong in this building. White stone covered every surface in a grid of squares. There was no furniture in sight, only a bright white passageway off to the right. And directly in front of them was a massive door with golden trim and a bar of gold in lieu of a knob. 

Soft clicks sounded from the hall and they spilled out of the elevator.

“Hello there!” a chiming voice rang out, echoing through the empty room. The clicks grew louder until a small girl with dark green skin appeared, her arms outstretched. “Welcome.”

Her white hair was tucked away in rows of braids and almost as bright as the room around her. She smiled, lowering her arms as she approached Ochako’s group. “I am so glad to have UA participating in my test,” she said, grabbing at the flaps of her midnight purple coat restlessly. “I am Dendi.”

Aizawa introduced them all, stepping ahead of the other three. 

Ochako was dreaming. 

The room was so absurd, so… real. 

This was really happening. 

“Thank you for coming,” Dendi said. “I apologize that I don’t have any accommodations up here, but I will do my best to get straight to the point and keep things brief.” 

Ochako nodded along in a daze, the brightness blinding.

“The Hyperbolic Time Chamber was created by a quirk two years ago that ripped another dimension here into ours,” Dendi began and Ochako felt her lips part in awe. “With a combination of quirks and science, we have found a way to contain it and use it for the betterment of our dimension. It’s been used for the purpose of training a dozen times now, so you two are still going to be a part of an experimenting phase.”

Aizawa tensed a bit and Present Mic shifted on his feet. 

“The most important thing to remember is this:” Dendi closed the distance, retrieving something from the pocket of her coat and holding it out to Ochako. “This is your escape mechanism. Should you feel your lives are in imminent danger, press that button and one of our quirk users will teleport you both back here.”

Ochako turned the small, black device over in her hands. 

Life-threatening danger?

“You will be inside the chamber for exactly twenty-four hours which will equate to roughly one year within,” Dendi pressed on. “You will not have contact with the outside world aside from that button. You will age -- your hair will grow, your bones will grow, and these effects will not disappear once you’ve returned to our dimension.

“Take your time acclimating to the environment. The gravity will be ten times what you are used to. The air is denser, which will aid you in healing any injuries that might occur during training, but also could be hard on your lungs. The weather is chaotic and often sudden. The temperatures are extreme and range from -40 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Take appropriate precautions. Remember that simply surviving your year will still spur considerate growth, even if that means you won’t be doing the 24/7 training you might have imagined.”

Ochako was pale. She knew she was pale. She could feel the blood drop out of her face and hide somewhere in a dark corner. She wished she could follow it. 

“I have already stocked the chamber with enough food to last the year, but ration it wisely. You have running water and most basic amenities I assume you’re used to,” Dendi explained, her tone lightening right up after listing all the reasons they could die on their second day of school. “You are heavily stocked with medical supplies and a few books to help research proper care of common health conditions that might arise.”

“Lastly,” Dendi paused, “you will immediately notice the void.”

Ochako swallowed. 

“Away from your living quarters, your surroundings are, quite simply, a void. Venture too far from home and you can and will get lost. If you don’t happen to have your escape button with you, there won’t be anything we can do.

“So don’t get lost in the void.”

Ochako stared at the door behind Dendi, the weight of her bag on her shoulder suddenly pressing. In her periphery, she could see Bakugou had removed his hands from his pockets to cross his arms over his chest. Seeing him uncomfortable was both a relief and terrifying. 

“Any questions?”

She should have had questions. She should have asked Aizawa why he would let her do this, why did she have to be the chosen one? She should have been more prepared for life and death questions. She should have said no when they’d drawn her name yesterday. 

But then Bakugou stepped up beside Aizawa, dropping his fists to his sides. 

“No. Let’s fuckin’ go.”

This.

_ This  _ is why she’d chosen to bring Bakugou. 

Hadn’t she read the comics? Watched the movies? 

The best heroes aren’t the ones who follow a safe regimen their entire lives. They’re not the ones who would rather stay home, step back, say no. 

The best heroes were thrown into situations beyond them and rose to it. 

She had been chosen. 

Ochako dropped her hands from the strap of her bag and stood at Bakugou’s side. 

“I’m ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kami, Mr. Popo, and Dende are Dragonball Z characters and the inspiration for some elements here *cue upside down smiley emoji*
> 
> @ me on Twitter - jarynw02
> 
> Feel free to pester me about this fic. 
> 
> THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uraraka and Bakugou meet the void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay!! Was working on the quarantine collab fic which y’all should def check out 💕 hope everyone is safe and feeling well!

Kaminari Denki watched the clock over the door, the second hand ticking painfully slowly. Cementoss seemed to be even more monotoned today than usual and it was already hard enough to pay attention to his never ending lectures. 

Kirishima made eye contact with him across the room, pointing down at his notebook emphatically. 

Yeah, yeah. Take notes. Whatever. 

At the front of the class Midoriya was scribbling away, but when Denki looked over at Mina a small smile cracked across his face. She was relaxed, her breathing steady and even, while her head rested firmly in her palm, elbow propped up on the table in front of her. 

Target acquired. 

As quietly as possible, he tore a sheet of paper out of his notebook, hiding it quickly in his lap. Anticipation slowed time even further as he found his eyes darting between the second hand of the clock, Cementoss, and Mina waiting for an opening.

Cementoss rattled on. Something about a test attempted to catch Denki’s attention, but he currently had other priorities -- namely, fucking with his pink best friend. 

Ah! There!

Just as the giant rock of a teacher turned to face the board behind him, Denki reared up in his seat and chunked his wadded up paper ball straight for Mina’s head. 

Bullseye. 

The impact was probably no more than a tickle and yet a sleeping Mina still slipped off her hand, her face hurdling down toward her desk. She caught herself at the last possible moment, immediately jerking around in her seat to fire off a death glare at Denki. 

He just smiled and waved. 

“Kaminari,” Cementoss said.

Denki sighed. “Detention?”

“With Aizawa.”

Fuck. 

Cementoss didn’t wait for a response before droning on with his lesson. 

Denki glanced back over to Kirishima on an instinct just in time to see his friend shaking his head with exasperation — but he definitely didn’t miss the small smirk on his friend’s face. 

The empty desks beyond him caught Denki’s eyes and he tapped his pencil on paper. 

“I wonder what Bakugo and Uraraka are up to,” he mumbled to himself, imagining spending a year lounging in bed, waking up and going to sleep whenever he wanted to and having no homework -- ever. 

Denki sighed wistfully.

-X-

It was so hot.

Ochako wasn’t sure what exactly she’d been expecting, but this stifling, creeping heat was not it. The door had shut behind them with a heavy hiss, Aizawa-Sensei and Present Mic disappearing on the other side after a brief reminder that there was no shame in using the escape button early -- that a pro hero hadn’t even lasted a whole year inside yet. 

While it had eased the tension in Ochako’s chest, it sparked a challenge in her companion who’d barked back about being better than those pros and proving how easy it would be for him. 

Yep. Easy.

Now they stood shoulder to shoulder just inside the door, absorbing their temporary new home. 

It didn’t take long. 

The single room was modest, with a nook of two beds on the right, each with an encircling privacy curtain, and beyond that was a doorless room of endless shelves housing jars and jars and jars, all neatly labeled. To the left was a low, round wooden table with only two chairs. A doorway led to a washroom at its side and all along the walls were clocks -- slowly ticking with an otherworldly echo that reverberated through the bright space. 

Bakugo stepped forward, his brows knit in a light expression Ochako hadn’t seen before. She watched him step through the massive opening of their room, where a wall should most definitely be, and onto a wide patio of white stone tiles that matched Dendi’s floor that had just been behind them. 

Steeling herself, she tugged her bag off her shoulder and picked out a bed, tossing her things on its neatly made comforter. A bead of sweat was already forming along her neck and there was an ethereal sort of ringing in her ears as she listened to Bakugo’s echoing footsteps come to a halt. The ticks of the clock continued, looping through her senses as she moved to follow after him, shoving the curtain to her chosen bed closed. 

If it was bright in their room, it was the surface of the sun outside. A wave of heat pressed into her skin as she emerged onto the white stone grid, dropping down the first shallow step. Bakugo was frozen in place, his bag still over his shoulder and his toes at the knife’s edge of the white tile landing. 

He was just… staring into nothingness. 

Into the void. 

She almost felt as if she’d been unconsciously focusing on Bakugo to keep from really facing it -- the neverending vacuum of white that surrounded them in every direction, save for the small ancient-looking structure that was their new home. It’s infinite size blurred lines in her mind that she’d never even thought to worry about before. 

She felt so small. 

A sheen of sweat rose on her forehead and she swiped it away. 

“Bakugo?” she called to him, a few steps ahead of her. 

His duffel bag smacked to the ground, echoing out into the emptiness. He was ignoring her, his attention entirely captured by the blank scene before him. Ochako started toward him, only to watch as he took a step out into the void. 

And promptly collapsed to his knees. 

Bakugo caught himself with his hands, his back bending between his shoulder blades as he forced himself away from the near-glowing white floor with stiff arms. Ochako jerked to him, keeping both of her pink sneakers safely on the tile as his body shook, a low frustrated grumble crawling out of his chest. 

She stopped herself short of touching him as she reached out with all five fingerpads at the ready. He would hate her helping him without giving him a chance to save himself, without there being no other option. So she waited, the ticking of clocks blending with a soft whispering sound she hadn’t heard inside. Finally, one of his knees bucked and pulled up beneath his chest. A brief stillness washed over him in her vision before he pushed himself up agonizingly slowly, his entire body quaking in effort as he rose to his feet. 

His chest rose and he turned toward her, one shaking step at a time. Cheeks flushed a bright red and trails of sweat sweeping across his temples, his tense eyes met hers. 

Right before the light behind them flickered and he fell forward. 

Ochako reacted, wrapping both arms around his shoulders and activating her quirk before dragging him back onto the white tile and laying him down on his back. He sputtered awake the moment she released him, both with her quirk and her hands, and he immediately shoved her away from him, slapping listlessly in the general direction of her wrists. 

“Get off me,” he mumbled, an instability in his words that made her want to spiral into fear, but she focused on him instead. 

She raised her hands in surrender. “I’m off, I’m off.”

He didn’t bite back, instead draping his arm over his head to cough into his elbow. “Fuck.”

Ochako watched him gather himself silently. If ten times normal gravity was that hard on Bakugo, how on earth was she ever going to be able to stand it? He could barely even get to his feet without it being too much for his body. What was she going to do? Lie there for twelve months? 

Bakugo rolled himself to the side, using both hands to help him stand and it gave her a bizarre sort of deja vu as she realized the stone tiling reminded her of the sports festival ring. Seeing Bakugo pick himself up, face flushed and sweat dripping down onto his shirt twisted her memories of crawling up from the demolished playing field between the two of them during their match last year. 

If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was picking herself back up when all her strength was gone. 

So when Bakugo turned his back on her and said, “I’m going again,” she adjusted herself at the edge of the void to sit within reach and watch him fall once more at the mercy of the intensified gravity of the void. 

-X-

After three tries and nearly an hour had passed, Bakugo slowly and heavily stepped back onto the landing blanketed in sweat, grabbed his bag and retreated into their tiny home base without a word. He had managed to stand every time, even taking a few steps here and there, but never seemed to be willing to stray too far from the safety of regular gravity. 

Ochako stared into the abyss. She was still sitting at the rim of the stone landing attached to the temple-shaped house over her shoulder, her knees pulled up to her chest and arms wrapped securely around. 

There was a pull in her chest, like a calling toward the void -- as if it was alive and knew that she, too, had an effect on gravity. It almost felt like it was daring her to be the better of them. Her mind whirred with ideas -- ideas that she’d never even begun to consider without the need that the void impressed upon her. 

She was not as strong as Bakugo was, physically speaking. If they had come here to find room after room of weights, iron tinging the moist air, she would have been miserably behind her time chamber counterpart. However, the void was not as absolute as a gym would have been, not nearly so one-dimensional. The emptiness spoke to her, in some lunatic part of her mind that was probably letting the insanity of limitless space get to her, saying that there was an answer here for her that she wouldn’t have been able to find any other place.

She dropped her wrist, letting her arms fall away from her legs and they relaxed, creeping toward the void. With a mellow, steady breath, she straightened one leg, allowing it to fall over the edge and her stomach turned as it almost looked like there was nothing for it to land on -- like the emptiness would go on forever beneath her. But when her foot crossed some invisible boundary into the void’s space, it suctioned down and hit hard on solid ground. 

Her bones ached, her own weight forcing her foot down like an anchor no matter how hard she tried to lift her entire leg from the landing. She breathed through it, noting the point in her calf where the pressure started. 

Maybe if she just…

She reached a tentative hand to her shin, letting her fingers slowly slip past the unseeable boundary into the elevated gravity and watched as they slammed down onto the skin of her leg one by one until all five fingers connected with her shin. She tasted blood as her teeth clenched shut, forcing herself to concentrate on the idea she’d been clinging to. 

But she failed. 

Gravity left her completely, trickling out of her void-exposed foot after the rest of her was already airborne, sending her into an upside-down spiral headfirst into the emptiness ahead. A sharp eep escaped her throat at the spin and the sensation of going zero-g from two different pressures of gravity. She caught a glimpse of the mouth of the house, an unimpressed Bakugo leaning against one side with his arms crossed. 

Out of habit, she checked beneath her for a clear landing and was immediately embarrassed to see the same bright nothingness that surrounded her on all sides. Nausea was roaring into her ears as up became down and she threw her hands together.

“Release.”

Mistake. 

First, she felt her knee. A sharp, burn of pain lanced through her thigh and the bone of her shin as the joint absorbed much of her landing. Her forehead throbbed where it lay against the infinite white ground and her arms were splayed out around her, pressing themselves into the void so hard she thought she might sink into it. Sweat bloomed on her skin -- all of her skin. Hot. She was so hot. And when did the ticking of clocks and whispering like sand beneath her feet on the beach stop echoing? 

Bad. This was bad. 

She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Panic started to set in, her lungs shrinking in her chest as she panted for oxygen. Her hair turned slick, sticking to her face and her heartbeat hammered through her veins. 

Move. Move. Move.

She had to move. 

Pulling with everything she could muster, she dragged her hand over to her thigh over the course of minutes. She could do this. She always got back up. No matter how many times she might fall, she would always get back--

Her fingers finally reached the bare skin of her leg and she forced each one to make precious contact, ignoring the sweat dripping into her eyes. 

And then she was floating again. 

The relief was instantaneous. Pressure gone, she hovered for a moment, catching her breath and then before she could rise too high, she rolled onto her stomach and swam toward home, not releasing until she was confident that not one inch of her would land in the void. 

She fell clumsily, a stab of pain ringing out from her knee as she failed to catch herself on her feet. Huffing, she rose up on her arms to see a familiar pair of boots. Bakugo stood over her, his eyes pinched, but not angry. 

Annoyed, probably. 

He’d changed into training garb, but she didn’t stick around to see him step back into the void. Standing on trembling limbs, she made her way back to the house before finally letting herself tumble into her bed. 

She hadn’t been able to adjust her quirk how she’d wanted. Was such a thing even possible? Quirks could grow and change, right? Surely if she practiced enough, focused well enough, she could modify her blanketing zero-g touch. There had to be more possibilities for her than simply having her fingers work like an on and off switch. If she could release without touching then maybe…

Ochako reached for her duffel bag, fishing out her own training gear and ignoring any of Bakugo’s grunts loud enough to make their way inside. She might not know much of her quirk beyond the on/off switch she was starting to resent, but if there was more to control somewhere deep down, she was going to find out. 

Nausea bloomed in her again and she threw a hand up to her mouth. 

As soon as she finished hurling her guts up. 

Then she was going to find out.

-X-

They trained for hours. 

If that’s what they were calling it, at least. 

Ochako sat on the ledge of the outdoor area of the house, painstakingly trying out her idea of controlled anti-gravity on her feet as she alternately exposed them to the weight of the void one at a time. Though now she was careful to release herself within the realm of safety. 

Bakugo was more comfortable stepping away from the house, but still only a few paces from Ochako at all times. Back in the real world watching him would have been hilarious. The typically explosive, riotous blonde was standing still for long periods of time, a determined look in his eyes as he willed his muscles to still and acclimate. Eventually, he would take a few slow-motion steps in one direction or another before stopping to gather his breath. 

During her occasional breaks when she’d lie back on the warm tile floor, she’d check out the massive hourglasses she’d discovered on her walk back outside. There were two on either side of the entryway, both on massive hinges and lined with gold like so much of the rest of the house. One seeped sand exponentially slower than the other. She guessed one was counting down the year, while the other, already more than two-thirds empty, she thought was for the day. 

That’s where the whispering sound had been coming from. 

The natural echoing of the sand, as well as the ticking of all the clocks inside, became background noise quickly, now almost unnoticeable. But when one of them let out an infrequent sound of struggling, the echo in their voices was still jarring, reminding her of something otherworldly. 

Her own huffs were actually a little annoying. 

She was no closer to her goal — cancelling only a partial amount of gravity — than she was when she started. With the ache of her fatigued legs, she wasn’t sure they were growing used to the gravity or not either. 

Though she had managed not to throw up again since earlier. So that was a win. 

On the other hand, Bakugo was looking pale. Sweat covered his body, glistening across his arms and shoulders, his black tank top clinging to the hidden muscles of his torso. He was shaking more now, even standing still, but his face was more determined than ever — even if she still felt like the light in his eyes was flickering here and there, drawing her attention to him every time. 

“You  _ can _ take a break, you know?” she said finally slicing through the silence they’d been simmering in for what must have been all afternoon and maybe some of the evening. “Get some food or something?”

He ignored her. 

She watched his back as he reached up with his arms in a heavy, jittery motion to stretch them behind his head — his balance wavering until he stabilized. 

“You could get hurt,” she added, telling herself that she was just trying to take care of her training partner and definitely not fishing for a break to eat.

To her surprise, he chuckled. It sounded choked. Sweat dripped from his hands between his shoulder blades down to the ground. “Oh, like you hurt your leg?”

Ochako’s mouth popped open and she tucked her ankles beneath her, crossing her legs and ignoring her sore knee. 

“I saw you limping,” he explained without prompting. 

She resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest. She would  _ not  _ pout in front of Bakugo. “Oh yeah? Well, thanks for all the help then.”

“Tch,” he ticked, turning around to her and taking careful steps back toward the house. “You don’t need my help.”

That caught her off guard. 

She thought back to her lunch with her friends, to them talking about her learning from Bakugo, even if it just meant observing his process, as if they’d expected her choice to be about him helping her. Something sank in her chest. She hadn’t really thought about their advice that way. Did they really think she needed help that badly? 

Had she expected Bakugo to help her? 

Maybe.

But more than anything, she just found herself… inspired around him. 

Not that she would ever tell him that. 

“What if that’s why I picked you? To help me — I mean?” she asked him, rambling out the clarification while she watched him practice bending into a crouch and resting on the balls of his feet. He sat on his raised heels, his elbows on his knees. 

“It’s not.”

His snap answer kinda pissed her off. This was Bakugo — only cares about himself,  _ I don’t have any friends _ , King Explosion Murder himself. He didn’t know her. He barely knew her name. 

“And how would you know?” she fired back, trying and failing to keep her voice from rising. 

His head was bent as he watched sweat drip from his hair to the ground between his legs. He held his crouch fairly well, only wobbling once or twice before he looked up at her. “If you wanted help you’d have asked Deku or Icyhot.”

Well, shit. 

He was… kind of right. 

She gripped her knees to stave off the second craving to cross her arms. “Then why do you think I picked you?” 

He held her gaze without wavering, still crouched just over an arm’s length in front of her. Drops of sweat fell onto his lashes and he blinked, dampening them all and casting his eyes in a strange, softer light. 

“Same reason I wanted you to pick me,” he said, shoving off his knees to propel himself back upright. “To get as strong as possible — and to do it all on my own.”

He looked away from her as he said it and she was grateful. A foreign tinge colored her cheeks, an uncomfortable feeling with how hot she already was. He made his way back onto their gridded porch, an unconscious gasp at the relief of pressure zapping out of him as he stepped up. 

“You want food so bad, then let’s fucking eat,” he snapped, not pausing to wait for her as he made his way back inside. 

She watched his retreating form as something twisted in her gut. 

Maybe he did know her a little bit. 

And maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

-X-

  
  


By the end of her first day in the hyperbolic time chamber, Ochako had sweat more than she had during last year’s Sports Festival. The heat pressed on into the night, the air stagnant within her curtained bed and she prayed for a breeze through her layers of sweeping exhaustion. 

She’d expected to hear Bakugo’s breathing level out in the bed beside hers, so close she could reach over and nab his pillow out from under him, but she didn’t. There was no snoring, no shifting of the mattress, no rustling of the sheets — only the off-kilter ticking of the clocks echoing around them and she wondered if Bakugo was asleep or if he was laying awake beside her, curtains like walls between them. Some strange part of her wondered if he might be thinking the same things about her.

She counted the passing ticks of the clocks until she finally drifted to sleep. 

-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS IM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS.
> 
> Drop any tropes/scenes/ideas you’d like to see below!
> 
> And @ me on Twitter - jarynw02
> 
> Let’s discuss 🙃🙃


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uraraka and Bakugou open their gifts from the class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning this was not edited, lol.   
> I was too excited to post again after taking longer this time. 
> 
> Also, like, um, sorry about whatever this is hahahha

Mina glared over her shoulder. 

Kami grinned at her wickedly, wiggling his fingers just before Cementoss scolded him. 

Good. Serves him right. 

Even though she  _ was  _ kind of sleeping in the middle of class… In the front row… 

Whatever. 

Class had been droning on for what felt like hours today. Cementoss was always the hardest teacher for her to follow along with. She’d much rather listen to Present Mic’s enthusiasm than Cementoss’ quiet, monotoned nature. It made it even harder to focus than it already was for her. 

And she missed sitting near her boys. 

The front of the class was basically a punishment, one she may or may not have deserved. And that was fine. She could deal with being front and center. In fact, her grades might actually improve a bit if she could manage to stay conscious for most of it. 

What wasn’t fair was being so far away from everyone. 

Technically Sero was on the other side of Midoriya beside her, but still. They couldn’t exactly talk during class and there was no way Midoriya would pass notes back and forth for them -- especially not in the front row. 

Then there was Kami all the way in the back by himself. At least Kiri and Bakugou were basically next to each other normally, but now with him gone…

They were all separated. 

She needed to plan something with them to lament. Maybe they could eat dinner together tonight? But without Bakugou their cooking skills were barely tolerable… Training? No, without Bakugou they’d lose focus in seconds. Studying?

She almost laughed out loud at the thought. 

She sighed at her desk, leaning her cheek back on her palm.

See, Bakugou really needed to come to terms with the reason they called themselves the  _ Baku _ squad. 

They needed him. 

Her eyes drifted to the clock and she wondered how far along in the year with Uraraka he was. A slow, half smile twitched at her lips and she wondered if they’d opened their gifts yet. 

  
  


-X-

Ochako was proud of herself. 

Because somehow, she’d survived an entire week without being bored. Not really  _ somehow _ , she knew how. Every time the creeping silence would echo deeper and deeper into her mind and she’d start to find any surface to throw herself on and lament about the simple entertainments she missed, Bakugou would tell her to get over herself. 

Not literally, surprisingly. 

But he would grunt a little louder out in the void or return from training just to swap out of his sweat drenched clothes for another bout. Each time she’d find herself snapping to her feet and back at the rim of safety, practicing the new quirk method she was determined to create. 

Needless to say, there was no such thing as a lazy day with Bakugo. 

There were, however, unavoidable and quite uncomfortable domestic moments.

Because of the sheer amount of sweat the lingering heat had plagued them with, they’d both already done one round of laundry after some not-so-smooth communication on who would go first. Ochako had spent an excessive amount of energy deciding just how she could make sure he would never lay eyes on her underwear. 

And then there was that time after his first shower the morning of their second day when he hadn’t taken any clothes with him to the bathroom. 

Yeah, uh, they didn’t talk about that one. 

She assumed he’d forgotten he’d need them in her presence, because after his first walk across their room in nothing but a towel he always remembered to take his clothes into the washroom. Ochako tried really hard to forget about seeing him almost naked. 

But, well, it was, uh, hard. 

Thankfully, he’d quickly remedied her sudden hormone fit over his nudity with screeching about all of their food being non-perishables and there being nowhere to cook anything. They would sit at the round table and eat, in silence. 

Still, it was hard to form a routine after they’d realized there wasn’t a sun in the hyperbolic time chamber. At first, the bright light was near blinding and when their internal clocks started to wear them down for rest, the light had not subsided. There was no sunset, no fading darkness slipping them into the night. 

The dark in the chamber was random and near-sudden. 

And terrifying. 

They hadn’t experienced a period of night until midday their second day, only barely realizing what was happening two minutes into the dimming until they were in an almost complete state of blackness. An aura of otherworldliness set their home, along with the two guardian hourglasses on either flank, aglow, assuring that they could find their way back inside. 

After a week, they’d only had four periods of darkness and they’d lasted between roughly two to twelve hours each time. 

It was hard on the senses, making it almost impossible to get any real rest unless they were on the brink of exhaustion. 

Which, luckily, they were. 

Often.

Ochako blinked away the buzzing tiredness from somewhere behind her eyes, staring at the same leg she’d been working with all day. Bakugou was doing well in the void off to her right. They’d had another amiable lunch, still no talking, and now they were back to the only thing they seemed to know how to do with all their other options stripped away -- training. 

Today she had decided not to switch legs as she’d been doing all week, instead choosing to cement her focus entirely on one, hoping the concentration could finally be the key. All she wanted to do was  _ feel  _ the gravity in her fingertips. Control it. It was like she was wearing earplugs; She knew there was sound, she could make sound, but she couldn’t  _ hear  _ it to manage how loud or soft her voice was. 

If she could just break through that barrier, just gain that extra sense. 

She just needed to be able to turn down the volume, instead of flick off a switch. 

And she floated herself again. 

With a sigh, she released back onto her sore ass landing safely within normal gravity on the ledge. 

Bakugou was taking a break from the basic mechanical exercises she’d watched him do to strengthen his legs all week, now doing rigid push ups. The heat was mildly more tolerable than it had been the first few days, though she now thought they’d just become more accustomed to it rather than there being an actual decrease in temperature. That theory was squashed with the unbearable amounts of sweat had continued. Drops fell from the tips of his hair and she blushed a bit when she watched a larger drop slip off the end of his nose. 

Why was she watching him so closely?

A flash of him walking across their room in just a towel went through her mind and she groaned internally, repressing a blush with all her might. 

Now was really not the time to go full teenager mode. 

Another drop of water fell on the back of his neck and she chided herself for still watching him before she stopped short, straightening her spine to look closer from her perch. 

That had fallen from the sky. 

She looked up just as another drop splattered gently on her cheek. 

It was raining?

“Bakugou,” she called out as the single drops of water turned abnormally quickly into a soft pitter-patter. 

He ignored her. 

Surprise. 

But she was used to that now.

“Bakugou," she repeated. “It’s raining.”

“No shit.”

This time she groaned audibly as he continued his push ups as if he wasn’t slowly growing soaking wet. The rain crashed down over and around them within a minute of the first drop she’d seen, forming a wall of hot water between them. Even in the rain, the heat persisted and a warm, almost burnt smell tinged the moist air. The constant echoing of the clocks inside disappeared, a bizarre comfort she’d only noticed now with its absence. 

She continued to watch him despite her own displeasure. Her hair was quickly dampened, clinging to her face and neck. She was wearing a tank top and shorts that all suctioned to her skin and brushed against her roughly as she moved. Still, she watched him hammer on through his workout in the rain for a bit longer, pulling up her legs with a soft sigh. 

Finally abandoning her view of Bakugou she blinked away the rain in her lashes and stretched out her same leg back into the void. 

She didn’t even know if it was possible -- what she was trying to do. Quirks had their limits. She might be wasting her time trying so hard to discover something that was never there in the first place. 

But a small voice in her whispered that wasn’t the case and it lit a burning feeling in her chest that felt so like the call of the void she’d experienced that first day. It fueled her, reminding her of Bakugo’s words -- that she didn’t need help to become stronger than ever. 

Her foot dropped under the weight of ten times Earth’s regular gravity and she was ready for it. Pushing back her shoulders, she let an arm slide forward -- thinking only about the weight on the single limb. 

All she had to do…

She felt the familiar fall of each finger onto her shin. 

Was lift it. 

At first, nothing happened. 

Except her leg was lighter. 

She picked it up, extending it into the void and holding onto the tether of her quirk that connected her senses to the mass of her leg. 

“Oh my god,” she whispered, only then remembering it was pouring down rain after water rushed into her open mouth, parted in awe. “Bakugo!” she screamed through the blanket between them. “Bakugo!”

His head tipped up, water rolling down his face as his blonde hair clung to his sharp features. His eyes were annoyed, blinking away the rain from his vision. She swung her leg up and down in the void, holding tight to her quirk. His lips parted in what she assumed was a “Tch” before he went back to his push ups. 

She decided it was Bakugou-speak for good job. 

-X-

She couldn’t spread the volume control through to her full body. 

It shouldn’t have been surprising after how long it took her to figure out one leg, but still she’d hoped that understanding how to control one part of her would mean she could control all of her. Well, her quirk decided no. So, she fell flat on her ass in the rain, which surprisingly worked in her favor to aid her zero-g self in getting back to the safety of the white tile. 

After four more failed attempts, she’d retreated from the rain to shower while Bakugou was still outside. 

Now, Ochako was sprawled across her bed hours later while Bakugou showered. Their curtains were both pulled back, the heat having long been too suffocating for them to be fully closed through the nights. 

He’d been surprisingly easy to live with so far, at least as long as they weren’t speaking. He was tidy and kept to a flexible schedule that was predictable but not too rigid that it couldn’t be modified. He didn’t ask her about her training, or anything about herself really. They ate together almost every meal and though he seemed to always wake up before her despite either of them having an alarm, they still went to bed about the same time.

It was weirdly quaint.

However, it was so freakin’ quiet. 

Quiet inside the time chamber was different than the quiet she’d been used to in the real world. There was a quiet during an exam, a quiet in the dorms that spread just past midnight, and neither of those were in the same league as the quiet she experienced here. 

Here the quiet was alive and insidious. 

It echoed and moved, the ticking of the clocks on the walls weaving their way into the depths of her mind. The void itself sung a low whir, emitting just a breath of the power that lay inside. There was a presence within the quiet here, an omnipotent force that lingered even in her dreams. 

It was haunting. 

And it was driving her insane. 

Bakugou stepped out of the washroom fully dressed in another all black set of training gear. She tried not to react, but still managed to fidget by throwing her arm across her face, hiding him from view. His bag rustled somewhere beside her and she knew he was organizing his clean and dirty clothes before he would inevitably go into the pantry to line the walls with his cursing before choosing something to eat. 

She should join him.

But she couldn’t trust her to keep her mouth closed any longer. It wasn’t that she was avoiding talking to him, it’s just that… okay she was avoiding talking to him. Things had been going so smoothly for an entire week now and she just  _ knew  _ that if she broke their comfortable silence then he’d go off on her and she’d be hurt by it only to go off on him back and then it would just be an unpleasant atmosphere for the both of them. 

However.

She was going to lose her mind. 

Sucking in a heavy-laden breath, she pulled her arm back and rose up on the edge of her bed. 

“Bakugou,” she called out. 

He ignored her. 

She expected that. 

Waiting for him to emerge from the small room of their rations, she tried again. 

“Hah?!” he snapped this time, his face whipping over to hers. 

He didn’t really look all that mad, or irritated even. Maybe he was going just as stir crazy as she was. 

Her eyes darted over to his bag and then she thought of her own tucked away on her side of the bed that ran along the wall. 

“We haven’t looked at the gifts yet,” she said. 

He huffed, continuing his walk to the table. “So?”

“So?” she repeated. “Don’t you wanna know what everybody gave us?” 

The chair scraped softly on the tile floor as he pulled it out for himself. “Not really.”

“Oh, come on,” she goaded him. 

He didn’t fall for it. “Open them both if you want. I don’t care.”

Her brow fell. His ability to work with others might have improved over their first year, but he was still uncooperative overall. An idea struck her.

“So you don’t mind me going through your bag to find it then?” she asked, lilting her voice a bit and hoping he wouldn’t call her out on her false innocence. 

He groaned. “Fine, Cheeks, whatever.”

Cheeks? Had he called her that one before?

Bakugou stood, this time rudely shoving back his chair before making his way to his bedside and pulling out the gift from his bag as she turned to do the same. His was much larger and both were unceremoniously wrapped in miscellaneous bags she recognized belonging to their friends. 

“Well,” Bakugou said, his voice low in his chest. “Go ahead then.”

Ochako eyed the pouch in her hands. She knew it was one of Yaoyorozu’s makeup bags, a metallic gold on one side and sleek patent black on the other. Slipping the zipper open carefully, she peered inside.

She wanted to cry. 

Fingers scraping along the ridged sides, she dove into the tiny bag to pull out the compact device. 

“Music,” Ochako breathed.

The mp3 player was Todoroki’s, she was pretty sure. Its back was a glossy black and the front a touch screen that was currently lifeless. Barely shy of pressing the power button, she hesitated. 

There was no charger. 

Even if there was, there were no ports inside the time chamber -- no power supply woven through the walls. 

She clenched her teeth. 

“Hn,” Bakugou huffed. 

Ochako translated that to mean he wasn’t displeased with the gift. 

Nibbling her lip, she decided to turn on the device. Time seemed to slow as she waited for the screen to come alive before she finally pressed the button for the music selection. The mp3 player was more advanced than any she’d seen back in middle school. It looked just like a phone, which meant it should have speakers since there were no headphones in the cosmetic bag either. 

The list of songs was small, only a dozen or so options. 

But she knew at least half of them, if not more, were all her favorite songs. She could think of a memory from her first year with each of her friends to them, whether studying or cooking or dancing around her room together. 

A light smile lined her lips as she chose a song. 

Bakugou managed to somehow weather through the song and, idly, Ochako was proud of him for not lashing out in the middle of her rather silly top 100 dance song. 

Home. 

It was like hearing home.

She could see the night the girls had all danced to this song in the common room so clearly in her mind. There were no villains, no life threatening situations, no pressures. It was just a group of girls doing face masks and talking about boys and dancing to girly pop music. 

She needed this. 

“Thank you,” she whispered under her breath as the song came to a close. Her eyes found Bakugou’s which were only mildly distorted in annoyance. “Do you want to hear a song before I shut it off?” 

“No.” He seemed to understand they’d need to conserve battery life without her having to tell him. 

With the music player all tucked away, Ochako turned back to Bakugou who was standing about as far away from her now as he usually was in the void. He held up the red go bag she knew was Kirishima’s and she smiled briefly thinking of him and what he would have given to his best friend during something like this. 

“I already know what it is,” Bakugou said after a pause of nothing happening between them.

Ochako tilted her head. “Huh? How?” 

“Because I know those assholes and I can feel it through the bag.”

Slowly, she let her eyes wander the room awkwardly. “So are you going to open it then?” 

He watched her and she could almost see the exasperation filter through him. “Fine.”

Bakugou pulled the mouth of the bag open, its thick stringed straps shrinking as the fabric expanded. “Fuck these guys.”

“What?” Ochako asked quickly.

Bakugou shook his head, looking away from her. “Fucking Shitty Hair letting Tape Arms and Dunce Face choose the damn gift.”

Ochako debated on whether she should stand up. “Um, it can’t be that bad, can it?” 

He leveled her with a glare and made her decide to stay seated. 

Then he lifted a lava lamp from the bag.

Ochako’s mouth popped open. 

What?

“Seriously?”

Bakugou growled something indistinguishable before stuffing the red and orange cone-shaped lamp back into the bag. 

“No wait!” she said, reaching toward him. “Why would they give you that for your gift?”

“Because they’re assholes and morons,” he grumbled back. 

Ochako curled her fingers into a fist, drawing back her hand. “Or maybe that’s yours?”

“Hah?!”

Timidly, she added, “And you’re just embarrassed about it?” At the sight of the fury in his eyes, she quickly continued, “It’s okay to have childhood keepsakes, Bakugou!” 

“It’s not a fucking keepsake,” he snapped, pulling the lamp back out of the bag. “It’s a fucking stash lamp.”

She paused.

“A what?” 

Bakugou snorted and the laugh made Ochako pause further. Did he really just laugh? Well, no. But, kind of.

“A stash lamp,” he repeated, pulling the lamp back from the bag and bracing his fingers around its base. 

She stared at him open mouthed. “Are there like… drugs… in it?” 

“What?!” he shouted -- definitely shouted -- at her this time. “Fuck no, I’d never be caught dead with shit like that.”

“Oh,” she mouthed, still staring at him holding a  _ lava lamp _ completely stupefied. “W-what’s in it then?” 

He even sighed angrily.

“Chocolate.”

This could not possibly get any weirder.

She was in a borderline-magic space-time room for a full year with the Bakugou Katsuki who was now holding a lava lamp and telling her there was chocolate inside. Maybe she really had gone insane in the silence of the void. Maybe she was dying slowly in the void and it was sending her down a steep slope of vivid hysteria. 

“What,” she deadpanned. 

“Those idiots save them for Pinky when she goes on a rage every month or so,” he sneered at her and she thought she saw a tinge of color across the bridge of his nose. “Stop making such a fuckin’ big deal out of it. It’s just those morons--” but he stopped there. 

Because as he’d spoken, he’d popped off the bottom of the lamp. 

And out spilled an array of colorful foil squares. 

Okay, now they were both blushing. 

Hard. 

“I WILL FUCKING KILL THOSE BASTARDS!” Bakugou screamed so loud she was sure someone on the other side of the void would be able to hear him even through the pouring rain. 

-X-

If things were a little awkward before the condom fiasco, they were unbearably tense now. 

Bakugou had been fuming, his face as red as she was sure hers was. 

With little options for escape that didn’t involve getting rained on, she’d quickly excused herself to the pantry to cower behind as many walls as she could put between them. The downpour outside buffered the excruciating sounds of Bakugou picking up the excessive amount of contraception that had been shoved into the base of his gift. 

Honestly, she would probably kill those boys when she got back too. 

How was she supposed to spend an entire year stuck in here with him now? 

How was she supposed to ever look him in the eyes? Train with him? See him leaving the washroom, beads of water still trailing down his neck from his hair still wet from the shower?

Wait, no, what?

She’d never even really thought about such things before and her friends never approached such a subject -- let alone would they ever have  _ condoms  _ on hand to send with her into the… 

She thought back to Sero and Kaminari talking about this being like a vacation during the quirk assessment and groaned, dragging a hand down her face. 

They should have at least known better than to give them to Bakugou of all people. He wouldn’t have even considered such a possibility with her during this training without them slapping him across the face with their obnoxious teenaged games. 

Right? 

Did Bakugou Katsuki think about sex? 

He was sixteen -- wait, his birthday was coming up wasn’t it? So almost seventeen? 

Seventeen year old boys were  _ supposed  _ to think about sex. 

But this was Bakugou.

Still, she wasn’t free from the times her eyes had lingered on his body, noticing chiselled pieces of him she’d never really seen before. That wasn’t her though, right? Right. That was just hormones.

So, if Bakugou did think about… it… then it was all just hormones too.

Right?

She covered her face with both hands and let out a hard, silent scream, kicking her legs about in front of her. 

This was so stupid. She was being so stupid. 

And still her mind wandered to the possibility…

What would it feel like?

_ Stop it, Ochako.  _

Begrudgingly, she stood up and grabbed some food. 

She needed to reorient her brain about why she came here.

With the images of spreading her volume control on her quirk, she emerged from the pantry and took a perilous step toward the kitchen table to silently and painfully eat with Bakugou before they’d both be heading back into the void. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait! 
> 
> I got news on Monday that I was "furloughed" otherwise known as unemployed until my place of work can open back up and I really retreated inward. Ended up watching/reading all of Haikyuu and just kind of... zoning out to gather my bearings. 
> 
> However, I am still excited about this fic! I have not forgotten about it or any of you incredible people who have read, commented, given kudos, and everything in between! Thank you thank you thank you. 
> 
> Pls follow me on Twitter! @ jarynw02


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako and Katsuki are starting to get used to training in the void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO BETA WE DIE LIKE MEN
> 
> okay but really its more because I took so long to post this that I didn't have the patience to really even proofread it soooooo if there are issues, I AM SO SORRY, but I wanted to get you guys some content as soon as possible!! 
> 
> I really love this chapter so I'm hoping you guys do too and the wait was worth it <3

Shouto had already finished the assignment for this class last week. 

He’d already read ahead, his clean and tidy notes open on his desk as Cementoss droned on. Tuning him out was easy, but it was a practice he typically avoided less his mind started to wander. 

It was a habit he’d long learned he had. One that had often resulted in his own continuous torture, so he typically tried to stay as in the moment as possible. His imagination would build up scenario after scenario, swirling together the past and what might come of the future dragging him away with what if’s and maybe’s. In the end, it was a pain and he was better off focusing on the present. 

Today, however, that was proving difficult. 

Midoriya was upset.

His closest friend hadn’t confided in him about it just yet, but he could tell that Uraraka’s absence was bothering him. He could also tell that her company being Bakugo was not helping the matter.

Shouto knew of Midoriya’s crush -- too well, honestly. 

It was one of those what if’s and maybe’s that usually haunted him the most at night right before bed. 

But he was a good friend, he thought, at least he was trying to be. Especially for Midoriya. So he listened to his friend’s original confession when he’d come to him. And he listened any other time Midoriya found the need to bring up the subject, including many debates over whether Midoriya should involve himself with anyone in their line of work. 

Shouto could relate. 

But he also couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to be the cause of those faces Midoriya made for Uraraka -- that blush, those bright eyes. 

Was he normal?

Was it normal to have these thoughts of your best friend?

He rotated his pencil in his fingers, letting himself stare at green hair out of the corner of his eye, suddenly wishing this class would finally end. 

-X-

Waking up was starting to be bittersweet. 

It wasn’t that Ochako didn’t want to wake up. It was more that the resounding silence that had stretched between herself and Bakugou was becoming an ache in her chest. The stillness was a pull on her throat, an emptiness in her gut. It hung around them, yawning into the void and returning tenfold. Two days had passed since the awkwardness of their gifts and though she’d wanted to avoid him for the rest of the year after seeing condoms rain down between them, she was over it. 

More so, she couldn’t stand the loneliness of the quiet. 

The pressure of it was worse than facing whatever discomfort might be lingering in the way. 

So, as she rolled her face into her pillow, she decided to talk to him today. Her hair fell across her cheek as sleep edged its way out of her senses. She’d kicked her blankets further down the bed last night. It had been too hot for them from day one. With a soft groan, she pulled her toes away from comfort, sat up and opened her eyes. 

To darkness. 

A period of night had apparently set in while she’d been asleep. The sensation of expecting morning only to wake up near-blind was unsettling. Her gaze drifted to the clocks lining the walls, ticking together out of rhythm. She’d studied them more than once, attempting to decipher them, but each time she’d found herself overwhelmed. Slipping from the side of the bed, she padded on bare feet out toward the landing to the void. 

The shower was running. Strange, as Bakugou normally only showered after training, not before. Had he woken up early to train without her? They didn’t always train together, so it wasn’t like he’d have dragged her out of bed or anything. The thought of him alone in the void while she was unconscious left a bad taste in her mouth. 

Maybe she’d overslept because of the darkness. Maybe her body had thought it was supposed to stay at rest in the new night. 

Avoiding her attention being vacuumed into the void and lost, she followed the faint glow of other-worldliness to the dials of sand outside. They whispered to her as the grains fell. She hadn’t overslept, Bakugou was apparently just changing his schedule, which he was allowed to do, she supposed. 

Not bothering with any sort of morning pleasantries, she found a clean outfit, choosing without a care for whether it matched or any of the other frivolous things she’d cared about back in the real world. And after waiting to hear Bakugo’s shower end and grabbing the panic button, she drifted to the edge of the void. 

Its darkness spilled and moved like her vision after pushing herself to the limit. It was dizzying -- and strangely addicting. The pull in her chest had never wavered from that first day, the void still calling out to her as if it had secrets to tell. 

Ochako sucked in a quick breath and blew it out of her lips in a soft oh. 

Closing her hands into fists, she pressed her fingerpads into her own skin, allowing the numb buzz of her quirk to sink through her bones, muscles, skin. Her tension eased, weight released. She stepped into the void before she could lose her concentration -- or her nerve. 

But she couldn’t ever seem to connect the reduced gravity sensation through her middle and the pressure buckled down on her knees. She breathed through it, telling herself all she had to do was fall backwards to return to normal. Teeth clenched and fingernails biting into the skin of her palms, she focused. 

She’d been getting so much better. Once she’d been able to volume control the gravity in her leg, spreading the feeling had come naturally. Then she’d hit this wall -- completing her full body shift from on-off switch to weak-strong dial. 

And now here she was. 

The faintest footsteps sounded behind her and she imagined Bakugou standing at the mouth of their temple home, watching her. Something about that was strangely encouraging despite the slip of anxiety that sliced through her. Knowing that he was observing made her want to pull out her very best -- to prove to him that she was growing. 

She could do this. 

Reining in all her attention, she closed her eyes and visualized the gravity in her body like a deep color and then muted it, fading it nice and easy--

Until it clicked.

Her joints relaxed, her shoulders fell.

She-- She really did it. 

Her eyes opened and a trembling breath spilled over her lips.

She did it.

And then she lost it.

The pressure returned full force, her stomach turning wildly and she threw herself backwards, her ass coming into direct contact with the very familiar tile of the lookout. 

Then she threw up just as Bakugou approached the edge on her other side. 

Awesome.

He’d steered clear of the side of the platform she’d soiled until she’d cleaned it up, ashamedly and then the rest of the morning continued as usual. They each worked on their own goals, though Bakugou was now moving around fairly easily in the void, though not at top speed or a competitive pace, while she tried to recreate her experience this morning -- minus the barfing. 

It didn’t work and she was frustrated. 

Hours had passed when she heard it.

The explosion. 

Her neck snapped around as the smoke cleared and she couldn’t stop herself from shouting out a, “Bakugou!” 

The echo of his quirk in the void was like nothing she’d ever heard before. It rang through her ears, vibrating her jaw as her eyes adjusted to the flash in the darkness which returned before she could see him through the aftermath. 

He didn’t answer her and her heart started to race.

“Oi,” he snapped just as she’d started to move. “Pay attention to yourself.”

Her relief won out over her frustration. He was okay. And he  _ spoke _ .

“Just… take care of yourself,” she heard herself say.

He tch’d his tongue at her. 

She waited for something more, eyes wandering over his broad shadow that had sunken to a crouch after using his quirk, but he seemed to be done talking.

Ochako, however, wasn’t.

“Maybe we could eat some lunch?”

Nothing.

“It’s been a few hours.”

Still nothing.

“I didn’t eat breakfast,” she said, dropping down to sit on the ledge. “And I don’t know what time you got up, but even if you ate before then, it’s still been a while.”

She chewed her lip at his lack of response, pulling her knees to her chest.

“It would be good for us both,” she went on. “We need to take care of ourselves so that we don’t have to ever miss any training because we just couldn’t--”

“ _ Fine, _ ” he nearly screamed at her. 

She smiled and tried not to cheer. 

Further onto the landing the glow of their home was stronger and she could see him again, which was a blessed comfort in this mind-twisting new reality. She basically bounced up beside him and he sneered down where their shoulders had touched and put some distance between them before moving straight to the pantry. 

She was sitting at the table for a few minutes before it dawned on her that she should be grabbing herself food, too. Bakugou emerged, arms loaded with their non-perishables, just as she’d been about to step inside. 

He frowned at her. “What are you doing?”

“Getting food?” 

He let out an exasperated sigh, his nose twitching. “I got the food already. Go sit down.”

“Oh,” she couldn’t stop herself from saying. “Okay.”

They ate while Ochako drowned in ideas of how to start a casual conversation with Bakugou. She’d talked to him before, right? Plenty of times. 

But casually?

She eyed his dwindling food. Time was almost up before he was gone, back to training and ignoring her.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Her lips popped open and she looked up at him. “Um, what?”

“You’re staring at my plate like you don’t have food just sitting in front of you,” Bakugou said, his mouth curling a bit with his growling voice.

Wow, she was really good at this. 

“Oh,” she paused. “Sorry. I guess I was just… thinking.”

His response was a grunt.

Giving up on casual conversation with Bakugou Katsuki, she turned to something less strenuous. 

“How did your first explosion feel?”

He stopped chewing, but didn’t turn to her, seemingly deliberating his answer.

“Good,” he grumbled in a way that sounded like it was anything but good.

“I can’t imagine what it would be like,” she mused, gathering her own next bite on her plate. “The force of the blow back in there had to be ridiculous.”

“I’ll adjust,” he said quickly, surprising her. “It’s just another element of that  _ thing. _ ” He gestured to the void beyond them. “I’m more interested in seeing the results outside.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Once I get the hang of this volume thing then I’ll get to develop new ways of using it without being stuck in the void. I think it’s going to improve my combat ability so much.”

He hummed, finishing his last bite. “Volume thing?”

“Oh.” She hadn’t realized that they’d never discussed their training methods before. “Yeah! I’m trying to control gravity like a volume dial, lowering it at will instead of just… turning it off.”

“I figured,” he said, pushing away his plate and crossing his arms over his chest, but still not looking at her. “Just didn’t know you called it volume.”

“Well, it helps my mental picture while figuring it out.”

“You should meditate,” he offered. “It’ll help align yourself with your body as a whole.”

“What?” she almost sputtered. “You meditate?”

Now he looked at her, his frown more like a grimace. “Of course I do. Why do you think I’ve spent hours just standing out there?”

“I don’t know,” she stumbled. “I thought you were getting used to it?”

“Tch,” he scoffed, casting his gaze away to the void before pulling it back to level with her. The weight of him watching her held the same effect as earlier -- anxiety and a sudden thrill to be her best. “You ready?”

She shovelled her last bite in her mouth and nodded.

They cleared the plates and walked back out toward the chasm of the void together and Ochako didn’t realize that they’d had a real, normal,  _ nice,  _ conversation until she had showered and slipped into bed that night. 

-X-

Ochako woke to the bite. 

Cold had sunken into the sheets around her, creeping through to her toes. It was still dark and the curtains around her bed intensified the blackness of the chamber. She tightened her fists, gripping the inside of the comforter in desperation and pulled it up to her chin. Burying her face in her pillow, she tried to ignore the new, sheer cold — the way it crawled along her skin, prickling as it moved and bled through her muscles, her bones. 

Her thoughts drifted to Bakugou. 

He had to be freezing too. 

There were no more blankets. She had no more layers of clean clothes to pack on. Energy sapped by the chill that stung her lips and quaked in her ribs, she could only think of one other option. 

But she couldn’t. 

Couldn’t possibly.

Bakugou wouldn’t go for it on a good day and even if they’d managed one stable conversation today, it didn’t erase all the times he’d snapped at her from her mind just yet. 

She grit her teeth, wrestling with the tight tremors of her jaw. The ethereal ticking of the clocks slowed, stealing her attention. How much longer would this go on? She couldn’t imagine training in this. Even moving to get to food or the washroom sounded painful. How long could they last in this cold?

Ochako sucked in a raw, shaky breath and sat up, pulling her curtain away from Bakugou’s side.

“Bakugou,” she said. Her voice came out as more of a whisper than she meant for it to. “Bakugou!”

He was ignoring her. 

Well, no. That was presumptuous -- even if he did often ignore her, especially when she was calling out his name. But she probably just hadn’t woken him. 

Steeling herself, she drew her legs out into frozen air only to decide to wrap her blankets firmly around herself before standing. Her exposed fingers stung and prickled as she reached for his curtain and she took as deep a breath as she could before yanking back his curtain. 

“Baku--”

He wasn’t there. 

If he wasn’t in bed then…

She looked over to the open washroom door as panic started to drop down to her stomach. Their escape button sat on the table where she’d left it before bed and her heartbeat rose to a heavy thump she swore she could hear in the quiet night. 

There was no doubt in her mind where he was.

Barely holding on to her blanket around her, she bolted in a barefooted sprint toward the void. Her breath fogged in small clouds as she ran, ready to berate him at the top of her lungs until she crossed the threshold. 

Even in the shadows she could see his form.

Collapsed on the floor of the void. 

“Bakugou!!”

She dropped her blanket midstep, some part of her triggering to remember the danger of the void and that she  _ definitely  _ shouldn’t just run out into it under any circumstances. 

But this was Bakugou Katsuki laying on the endless, black ground -- alone. 

Ice had started to form throughout the void, piling together in mounds here or there. The glint of a layer of frost building in Bakugou’s mass of unruly blonde hair caught her eye just before she squeezed her hand into a fist, fingerpads locking on her skin.

And then she jumped into the void. 

Her steps didn’t falter, the distant humming a sickening comfort as she crashed to her knees beside him. She rolled him over and leaned above his face, patting his cheeks in desperation. His lips weren’t blue or anything so hopefully he hadn’t been like this for very long. 

He didn’t stir to her touches and her stomach turned. 

She felt dizzy.

“Bakugou,” she said, pleading. “Wake up.”

Ochako would let him ignore everything she said for the rest of the year if he would just answer her this one time.

“Bakugou,” she choked, the emotion bubbling up in her throat. “Bakugou!” 

Deciding she was wasting time, she latched her hand onto his cheek, fingers touching along his jaw and neck in a silent command. 

Float.

She dragged him back over to normal gravity, hauling his weightless body to his bed before returning his normal state. Crawling to his side, she scoured her memories for anything Todoroki might have ever said or done about the dangers of freezing and came up empty. 

All she knew was that he needed to warm up.

She sprint to her fallen blanket, adding it atop his own before settling herself on him and wrapping them both. Spreading herself, she tried to cover as much of his larger frame as she could, her tight grip on him threatening to exhaust herself. 

Her forehead fell onto his chest and she felt her own tears drop in his shirt and for the first time since stepping into the hyperbolic chamber, she let herself cry. 

She wept against him, letting out every ounce of fear she’d accumulated so far. Every thought of being alone. Every ache for her family or her friends. Every crippling moment of doubt in her ability. 

The image of Bakugou unconscious in the void. 

A groan sounded, but she didn’t dare move, too caught up in her own convulsions. She pressed her face into him further, wiping away her tears.

“Wha--” he croaked, but it fell short. His body seemed to try to tense beneath her, but failed. 

“Stupid,” she mumbled, both of them shivering now. His arm moved against hers like a flinch. “So  _ stupid _ .”

She tightened her arms around him, the idea that this should be embarrassing and was definitely crossing some sort of boundary far away. He dipped his chin, trying to look at her but knocking against her head instead. She raised up above him, the blankets a tent around them.

“How  _ could _ you?” she dared, not bothering to hide her tears or the venom leaking out of her voice. “I know you’re fucking Bakugou Katsuki or  _ whatever _ , but… how  _ could  _ you?”

His brow fell for a beat, anger lighting them, but it faded quickly. Red eyes watched her in a gentle, though guarded way that she might have even thought looked guilty -- if she didn’t know better.

“I told you that you push yourself too hard!” she yelled in his face. “I told you that you’d get hurt! I told yo--” her voice broke off, another rogue tear dripping onto his chest above his shirt, rolling down his neck. “You could have left me here alone. You could have  _ died _ ,” she breathed. “How dare you be so selfish.”

His hands twitched by her legs, but he didn’t look away. 

Her bottom lip quivered and she ducked back down to his chest, fisting his shirt in her hands. “We’re partners,” she said, her pitch wavering. “Whether you like it or not. What if I hadn’t woken up? What if I hadn’t come looking for you? You’re an  _ idiot _ .”

He took her words, accepting them, though she wasn’t sure if he was just too weak to respond. 

And any break in her scolding left room for her panic and fear and anger to roil itself up all over again.

“So stupid,” she spat, feeling the tears falling out over her now-swollen eyes. “You are  _ so  _ stupid. I think I might hate you. I hate you so much right now--”

“I get it, Cheeks,” his voice rasped, finally.

She pulled back to look at him and his eyes were already on her. 

“Good,” she said, shakily before falling back onto him, digging her cheek into his shoulder. “Don’t ever do that again.”

He hummed and she felt it in his chest. 

They fell asleep that way, but Ochako was already in the land of unconsciousness when Bakugou’s arms slipped over her back, holding her to him all through the night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY I AM SO SORRY.
> 
> I watched Haikyuu for the first time and it sent me down a rabbit hole of reading all the manga available and then drowning in that fandom (of which I have written a few little one shots, pls check them out if you're a HQ fan) however THAT SAID, kacchako is and will always be my OTP and I really enjoyed getting back into the groove with them.
> 
> Hit me up on Twitter! @jarynw02
> 
> & a huge thank you to all the commenters!!!!!! oh my god your comments are so overwhelmingly wonderful. this fic is four chapters in and already at 200 comments so....that's INSANE. thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
> 
> and thank you to all my twitter moots who have loved on this fic and PM'd me to make sure I'm okay and to express how much you love this story and my writing. sometimes I think its hard as a writer to feel like my worth is tied to what I can produce, you know? like I'll only have friends if I give them the fic they want and I think that's the battle a lot of fanfiction writers feel... but I've been trying to adjust that perspective and write whatever makes me happy. 
> 
> sigh. rant over.
> 
> THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR!!!
> 
> pls comment -- I can't wait to read reactions to that final scene oh my god can we PLEASE talk about it cause
> 
> FEELINGS
> 
> ok ok I'm done now!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sense of normalcy sets in for Ochako and Bakugou.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU GUYS I USED A BETA THIS TIME ARE YOU PROUD OF ME
> 
> ~ Lo, I love youuuuuu x1000000
> 
> ALSO I AM SO HYPE FOR THIS CHAPTER - Easily my favorite so far. It was so fun to write and I just want MORE. I hope that it has the same effect on you guys!!

The only thing worse on Shouji’s ears than Kaminari and Kirishima going on a Bro Rant was Present Mic’s class. 

He’d been grateful for the chime that finally ended Cementoss’ lecture, because it meant one class to go before the end of the school day, however they still had to sit through english and thus, Present Mic. 

There was something cruel about lulling the class to sleep with Cementoss’ easy bass voice before slamming the projectile that was Present Mic into their faces and forcing them all to pay attention to him whether they liked it or not. 

“Hey, hey, hey!” 

Shouji groaned at the blonde’s entrance and fought the urge to extend a mouthed arm over to Tokoyami to repeat his friend’s joke about the teacher’s hair from yesterday. Tokoyami’s humor was… well, it was dark. 

“Who’s ready for a POP QUIZ?!” Mic scream-sang through the room and a chorus of groans reverberated through all eighteen students in attendance. 

His mind trickled over to Bakugou and Uraraka in the time chamber and he couldn’t help but wonder what it’d be like inside. What were the two of them doing?

Aside from likely killing each other. 

Shouji was excellent at observation; Reconnaissance was his forte. 

Naturally, that meant he was well aware of the tension between Uraraka and Midoriya. Whatever they had going on was beyond Shouji’s concern, but he couldn’t help but wonder how Uraraka’s allegiance to Midoriya would affect her being alone with his rival for a full year. 

And then there was the fact that Bakugou hated all things bright and happy.

Read: Uraraka in a nutshell. 

Shouji reined in his bored mind as Present Mic started to list the quiz questions on the board. He opened his notebook to a clean page and put away his passing concern for the time chamber duo. 

Surely they wouldn’t kill each other.

  
  


-X-

Ochako’s eyes hurt. 

The stiff swelling meant she immediately remembered last night, the sharp chill in the air lingering and aggressive. Her anger bubbled, still holding up in her heart, but losing a touch of its fire. 

Then she realized she was moving, gently — rising up and down in the soft rhythm of Bakugou’s too shallow breathing which meant two things: she was still laying on top of him and he was awake. 

Shoving down the idea that he hadn’t thrown her off him yet, she spiraled into forming a plan of what on earth to say or do to get away from him as gracefully as possible. 

Her brainstorming fell miserably short when she choked a little on her swallow, coughing and shaking her whole body atop him. 

Smooth. 

His head moved, his chin brushing against her hair and her cheeks warmed. 

“What are you doing?” she finally dared, her voice lower than she’d wanted it to be. 

He scoffed through his nose. “You’re the one pinning me down. What? You gonna yell at me some more for not dumping you on the floor the second I woke up?”

“No,” she grumbled, still not moving. 

Why wasn’t she moving?

“Besides, it’s cold as shit.”

Ah, yes. Good reason, good reason. 

It was light now, the darkness finally receding at some point while they slept which meant they could be a little bolder in training again. Images of the dark flooded her mind, Bakugou’s shadow still out in the void an ever-present memory that would probably be burned into her brain. 

But a thought struck her. 

“Oh my god.”

“Huh?” he grunted, shifting beneath her. 

“I ran out into the void,” she said distantly. 

“Wha— oh.”

Ochako straightened her arms, perching above him. “Oh my god, I ran out into the void!”

“You want a pat on the back or something?” 

His snarkiness could not dampen her excitement. She moved her palms to his chest, pushing down in a steady beat of celebration. “I did it! I turned the volume down! I did it!”

“Tch,” he clicked, avoiding her eyes even when she stopped shaking him and settled back down on her crossed arms atop him.

Looking up at his chin, she continued her train of thought, “I guess I just figured it out on the fly since there was a need. Wow.” She bobbed her head to the side and he did the same on his pillow, staring down at her. “This means I can finally start some real training.”

“You have been doing real training,” he argued gruffly. 

“You know what I mean,” she said, waving a hand. “And speaking of real training; What were you doing out there while I was sleeping?”

He rolled his eyes and turned his head. “Nothing special,” he said after a long pause. “The cold woke me up and I couldn’t get warm enough to sleep again so I thought I might as well train.”

She considered yelling at him again, but decided that at least now that they were communicating she didn’t want to push him away. “Next time just train on the outlook. In normal gravity. Please.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled. 

They didn’t speak for a while, the silence building into a thin tension. 

“Are you ever going to get off me?”

She pressed her forehead down on his chest. “But you’re warm,” she whined, admitting her own fear of the cold waiting for them today. She was sure most of their energy was going to be spent on acclimating to the new, poignant temperature that seemed to trump her unease at their nearness. 

“Gotta get used to it sometime, Roundface.”

She considered asking him what happened to ‘Cheeks’ from last night, but decided she’d already pushed the boundaries of their time chamber partnership a little too far by lazing on him all morning. Still, it was a feat to pull herself away from him -- a lingering fear of him going cold and limp as he had been yesterday pinching her nerves. 

Ochako took the first shower, careful to remember all her clothes to bring in the bathing room in fear of spending a single extra second naked in the cold. When she emerged, Bakugou had eaten and left behind a few extra helpings on the table before following suit. Distantly, she considered the fact that Bakugou never left behind a mess as she sneaked his leftovers and devoured them eagerly, looking over her shoulder to him behind the closed door as if she’d be scolded. 

She was stretching and eyeing the hourglasses on the landing when he joined her in fresh clothes. It had escaped her that their glass had been formed in the shape of diamonds, adding to the brilliant wealthy atmosphere emanating from their temple home. 

“Do you ever wonder what the class is doing?” she asked as she twisted a leg, feeling a new pleasurable tension from the stretch.

He crouched before starting up his routine of quick warm up movements to that she’d long grown used to. “No.”

“Not at all?”

He leveled her with bored eyes. “I barely thought about them when I was stuck in a room with them for hours every single day. Why would I think about them after two weeks away?”

“I miss them,” she said, ignoring his tone in favor of her own emotional agenda. “Like, I wonder what Tsu and Iida are doing--”

“Their work,” he scoffed, rising to stand. “Both of them care about the marks enough to focus without your presence.”

“But don’t you think Mina and Kirishima are missing you?”

“Tch,” he ticked, looking away from her. “Those idiots are fine. It’s probably been an hour for them since we’ve been gone.”

“Oh, right.” The brief disappointment in her chest was a surprise, but she waved it off. He was right. They were all fine and she was just getting caught up in her own new, mystical time zone. “So, are you gonna practice more explosions today?”

He raised a brow at her, lips pulling to one side and showing off his glinting teeth. “Hell yeah.”

-X-

She was standing in the void. 

She was standing  _ in the void _ \-- walked right on into it as if it were any other steps she’d ever taken. There was something striking about seeing Bakugou from their places in the endless white, like they were on level ground for the first time since entering the chamber. Though she knew that wasn’t quite true as he stood in the full effect of heightened gravity, sweat already building on his brow despite the sharp chill across their skin. 

Ochako had set out on her new goal the moment they’d crossed over the ledge of the outlook; lowering her quirk little by little to accustom herself to the same gravity that Bakugou was feeling every day. They were nearly entering their third week in the time chamber, two under their belts, and she still hadn’t so much as thrown a punch or performed a single push-up. 

Thankfully, her new state felt almost like a preset control once it had finally shifted into place. Every time she failed her attempt to let the increased gravity slip back in while her quirk eased its hold, she’d managed to snap her new manageable weight back in place -- with quite a bit of effort. 

The cold made her bones hurt, her skin prickling and her fingers numb. Yet somehow the freezing temperature helped to curb the nausea constantly blooming from all her strain and she found herself bizarrely grateful for it. Maybe she preferred training in the virtual Antarctica over the Sahara desert they’d been facing until now.

Bakugou, apparently, was not faring the same fate. 

Though he’d worked himself into a sweat, his peppering explosions were not of the caliber she could remember from all the hero course trainings of their first year. She paused her concentrated attempts at quirk adjustments to watch as he lost a bit of his patience, turning toward the open area of the void and bracing the wrist of an extended arm with a hand. 

Then he fired. 

The blast was percussive, blowing her back toward white tile as he shouted into the emptiness upon release of the fiery tension he’d built in himself. Her quirk slipped and she suctioned to the freezing, pale floor. Gasps popped from her lips as she stared into the sky -- or whatever kind of ceiling the void possessed. 

“Fuckin,” she heard in a grumbling mutter through the aftermath, approaching her steadily.

Ochako grabbed for the breaths his explosion knocked out of her, fumbling with her fingerpads to raise her gravity fully and swim over to the side, but Bakugou hovered over her before she could lift a finger. 

“What’re you-- oh!”

He bent beside her before tugging her up by an arm and tossing her over his shoulder with an ‘ _ eep!’  _ from Ochako. Rising was slow, her weight surely an added challenge within the void, but Bakugou surprised her yet again by taking careful, heavy steps back to the tile lookout. 

“I can do it myself!” she argued, though she was hardly putting up a fight with the way the gravity was trying to use her to crush him. 

He growled at her. “If I see you puke one more time, I’m gonna lose it.”

She pouted the rest of the way to safety. 

When he set her down, quickly turning back to the spot he had claimed for himself in the void that first day, she cleared her throat. 

“Well,” she said, straightening her hair from being jostled by him and his little quirk experiment, “we could always train without using gravity for a little bit?”

He took two more steps before he slowed. “As in?”

“We could spar.”

His cheek turned to her slowly over his shoulder, his brows raised. “Oh yeah? You looking for a rematch, Roundface?”

Ochako raised her chin at the challenge, her blood starting to hum through her despite the cold. “Something like that, maybe.”

He faced her fully, a fierceness settling in his features that had been missing when he’d been torturing himself over the crisp chill fighting against his quirk. “We’ve never been paired in combat in class before,” he noted. 

She nodded, watching him approach her with a trickling anticipation. “No explosions,” she said, suddenly a little breathless for some reason. 

A wicked sort of half-smile tugged at his lips and she almost felt like she was being stalked by a predator. “No explosions,” he confirmed. 

And then he launched himself at her.

She darted to the left, barely reacting with enough time to slip past his right hook, and grabbed his extended arm to yank it along its momentum so he’d fall forward. But he caught himself, jerking back his left elbow toward her face as he spun his back in front of her. Ducking, Ochako thrust the ball of her palm into his lower back and he stuttered a step before bounding out of reach. 

The feral grin on her face was mirrored on his. 

They fought until lunchtime and Ochako revelled in the groan of her muscles as she dropped down in the chair of their solitary table. It had been too long since she’d been in a ring, since she’d tested herself against another. There was a sweet sense of companionable rivalry still lingering between them as Bakugou emptied his hands of their meal and settled in beside her. 

“You know that leading with a right swing is predictable by now, right?” she said after they’d ravaged their food enough to finally slow down and enjoy it a bit. 

“Don’t care.”

“It’s a weakness,” she dared to say after a hesitant silence, “and your enemies will use it against you.”

He swiped at his mouth with the back of his wrist, flicking his eyes to her. “Anyone who wants to underestimate me because of a punch will learn otherwise soon enough.”

“Oh,” she breathed, reacting without really thinking. 

“Weaknesses are only fatal if you let them be,” he continued and she found herself watching him and his startling intensity. “Take your puking; Everyone knows if you use your quirk too much, you’ll get wiped out and throw up everywhere.”

He paused and she felt the blush creep up her neck. 

“Be good enough to prove them wrong.”

Her lips parted and her heart seemed to skip for a second as his words sunk in. He returned to his food casually and she forced her attention back to her own. Their meal ended while she was still swimming in what he said along with her ideas for just how she planned to be the ‘good enough’ that he spoke of. When they’d cleaned up and moved to step through the mouth of their home side by side, she reached over to brush her hand against his arm. 

“Do you think we could start doing that more? Sparring-- I mean.”

Red eyes scoured her face for a moment, the eerie ticks of the clocks behind them singing. 

“Sure, Cheeks.”

-X-

When nightfall would have finally been encroaching over any normal sky, they’d called it a day. The sand dials held a part of Ochako’s inner clock to sanity and she made a mental note to stay up late one night to see how they rotated to start fresh around whatever midnight was in this upside down chamber. 

They’d both been slow-moving after lunch and even worse after their snack of a dinner. The cold had drained them of their energy and even though Ochako had begun the day with enthusiasm over its ability to pacify her stomach sickness, she’d eventually felt sapped as well. 

Bakugou took the first shower of the evening, as he usually did. She hadn’t thought much of how cold it would be through the night while they tried to sleep until she stepped out of the warm water and was instantly stunned by the sharp temperature. Tugging on her two layers of clothes she’d chosen as quickly as possible, she ambled for her bed, careful not to slip on her one pair of fuzzy socks she was now so glad she packed. 

She stopped in the doorway, confused. 

Normally she’d slip straight into bed after her shower, Bakugou already breathing deeply behind his thick, fabric wall of privacy that separated them. 

But now he was sitting up in bed, his curtains still spread open and both of their blankets around him as they’d left them this morning. He looked up at her when she appeared, a strange look across his typically scowly face. 

“Um,” she hesitated. “Bakugou, what are you--”

“Just get over here already,” he snapped harshly, cutting the frosty air between them. “It’s fucking cold.”

She didn’t want to think about how quickly she scampered over to him and crawled into his side. 

-X-

The next few weeks passed by in a blur of shivers and sweat. 

Though the frigid environment hadn’t let up for nearly eight days, a part of Ochako knew that she’d forever remember the cold fondly. Because after that first day, she and Bakugou had started sparring every morning until lunchtime and she was gleefully proud to know that their skill levels were not so far from one another in that arena. 

That didn’t mean she hadn’t been nursing new bruises every day, but it was worth it to see Bakugou with a fat lip after she’d nailed him directly in the face on day five. He’d smeared the blood across his cheek with a fist before launching right back into their fight. 

It was bliss. 

However, there was a sweet relief when the temperature finally rose to a steady, mild degree. Perfect -- she’d call it. Especially as it came after a three day stint of darkness. Their new moderate setting came with its drawbacks though; Namely, there was no longer a reason for her to sleep in Bakugou’s bed every night and she’d grown accustomed to soothing her loneliness of the void in pressing herself against him. 

Not that she’d ever tell him that. 

So the cold came and went and so did she from their little sleeping arrangement, returning to her neglected bed and constant oversleeping. Their meals had steadily grown more comfortable, conversation more natural. 

He’d been focusing on acclimating his muscles, as she’d suspected, while she’d slowly gotten the hang of the full range of control over the volume of her quirk. By the end of the first month inside, Ochako was halfway between normal gravity and the gravity of the void with only enough strain on her muscles to allow growth. 

Bakugou, however, was now moving freely through the void at almost perfect speed and intensity, so of course he’d taken to training through the air. 

“You’re gonna fall,” she called out from her spot on the floor of the void, its hum an omnipotent constant in the background of virtual timelessness. She couldn’t hear his ‘tch’ over the explosions that held him above her, but she knew it was there. 

“Shut your mouth, Cheeks!” he barked over the bursts of noise, turning in the sky with another blast. 

Ochako shrugged as much as she could in the middle of her exercise; she was balanced on her butt, legs lightly bent and hovering out in front of her while she leaned back and twisted from one hip to the other to feel her core light up. “I’m just saying that you’ve been up there a while.”

“Mind your business,” came his gruff shout after a few more explosions sent him bounding around her. 

“Fine, fine,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. “Let’s listen to a song today. I think it’s your turn.”

He didn’t answer and she hoped it was because he was focused on not crashing into the ground and maiming himself worse than the day he’d accidentally sent a blast beneath him meant to make him hover. He’d been unprepared for the effect the weight of the void would have and nearly set them both on fire. 

Unfortunately, if he was focusing, it hadn’t been enough.

She felt his impending landing before she looked up to actually see it. She fell back to lay flat on the ground in a panicked reflex and threw her hands up, letting out an embarrassing scream as Bakugou dropped on top of her.

Except he didn’t. 

Her extended hand touched all five of her fingerpads to him just as he entered her space and shot off an explosion meant to save them from an awkward collision. Instead, it rocketed him away faster than she’d ever seen and a yell tore through his throat curving from surprised to victorious. 

She jerked up to her feet, eyes wide and mouth popped completely open. Fear turned in her gut and she raised her hands to release him, but another blast sounded before she could and Bakugou was flying back to her with his arm outstretched, fingers splayed wide and open in a request. 

Ochako had no idea what he wanted. Still, she hesitantly reached out just before he zoomed by, planting herself firmly on the bright white floor of the void. He shouted in her face just before he latched on to her arm. 

“SPIN.”

Digging in her heels at his demand, she pivoted and when he let go of her on the bend, she released her hold on him, marveling at the unadulterated  _ joy  _ she saw in his eyes in the split second they’d been connected as he shot off once more. 

He maneuvered his way back to her on a high and she returned his gravity with steepled fingers, staring unabashedly at his windswept hair. 

“That was…”

“Awesome,” she finished for him.

His hands rose to her shoulders and for a moment she thought he was going to hug her, sending her heart into a sprint. But he only looked at her with an unbridled wildness brightening his entire face.

“Again.”

Her smile cut into her cheeks as she looked up at him. She was amazed that a month ago she’d been afraid of being locked away with ‘The Bakugou Katsuki’ when now… he was just Bakugou. And they’d done more than tolerated each other over the last few weeks, until it was hard to believe that an entire month had passed by, leaving her feeling that the two of them were finally more like… partners. 

She nodded once.

“Again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some songs I would like to mention in regards to this fic:
> 
> >scared - Jeremy Zucker  
> >Where No One Goes - John Powell  
> >Come Fly With Me - Ruelle  
> >Only Love - Ben Howard  
> >I Won't Let You Down - Alex Clare
> 
> (There may or may not be a Spotify playlist for this fic)
> 
> @ me on Twitter!! ~ jarynw02
> 
> You guys, I really really really enjoyed this one. Sigh. 
> 
> Your support through comments and kudos and bookmarks and Twitter messages have just been OUTSTANDING!!!!!! Like, I cannot express my full gratitude here and I just hope that I do you all justice by providing something you guys can love as much as I do. 
> 
> I think I'll come up with a poll or something to try to sneak you guys in a trope or something maybe??? So if you have any favorite lovey dovey trope/moment/things feel free to drop them below!
> 
> Sooooo what did you think?!?! 
> 
> XOXOXOXOOXOXOX  
> x infinity


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One day turns into many.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music I strongly suggest for a vibe through this chapter:
> 
> -Crowded Places by BANKS  
> -False Confidence by Noah Kahan  
> -Cinema (Acoustic) by Gary Go  
> -Stupid Deep by Jon Bellion  
> -Superhuman by SLANDER feat. Eric Leva
> 
> Alternatively, I made a short Spotify playlist just for this chapter: [ Here ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3cetEjnH7IGKcz1Ukwf5Ae?si=XIBhYDk0RmSQT2J0_l6wew)
> 
> Please put it on shuffle if you click!

“I’m just kinda bummed, you know?”

Jirou did, in fact, know. 

Mainly because Denki was determined to walk with her all the way back to the dorms telling her about his every passing emotion to an excessive degree. She tightened the strap of her bag across her body, clinging to it instead of smacking him upside the head. 

She didn’t want to get electrocuted. 

“I mean, like, I realize that me and Uraraka are not the closest of friends or whatever,” he continued, practically skipping along beside her completely uncaring of anyone or anything around them as they followed the winding sidewalk path cut through the manicured campus lawn. “But still, you’d think she might at least  _ talk  _ to everyone before choosing. It’d be like an interview process!”

“Uraraka had every right to choose whoever she wanted for the time chamber,” Jirou said, interrupting his next long-winded stint of jealousy.

“Of course she does!”

“And she chose Bakugou. Live with it.”

He exposed his teeth to suck in, a quick sizzle sound escaping. “Ouch, Jirou.”

“It is what it is.” She rolled her eyes at him, but when he jumped ahead to open the front door to Heights Alliance, she had to fight down a slight blush. 

“‘Coulda done that myself,” she grumbled.

Denki smiled at her. “I know. Doesn’t mean I don’t like doing it.”

“ _ Stop _ ,” she practically whined.

She hated herself, obviously.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said and even that seemed to be enough to set off another bout of pink creeping up her neck. The idea that he knew when to quiet down with all the constant prodding her was just too much to think about. 

“Did you wanna watch a movie or something?”

“We should study,” she countered, biting back a yawn as they approached the elevators. 

He clapped his hands together. “What if we choose a movie we’ve both already seen before to play  _ while  _ we study.”

“No movie until math is done.”

He sighed, stepping through the open double doors beside her. “Fine… Wait! Orrrr--”

“No.”

“Fine.”

They settled onto the floor of her room the same way they had many times at the end of last year. Books splayed out, notebooks open. Math took them way too long, courtesy of Denki, but she couldn’t really say she was exactly well off on the subject herself. 

She let him choose the movie, as she often did -- even when he was adamant that she deserved a turn too. 

A musical number in a colorful, animated bar had just started when she was finally satisfied with their progress in both english and history, her own boredom dragging her tiredness of the dull day even further. So they moved up to the bed, both leaning back against the wall with their sides touching ever so slightly and a crackling energy between them too much like his quirk for comfort.

Vaguely, she remembered her head falling over to his shoulder and the soft press of a kiss to her forehead.

And then she was waking up to a dark room, alone. 

Grumbling, she patted her way across the bed until she found her long forgotten phone. The screen lit to her touch. 

One New Message.

  
  


**Kaminari Denki 😻:**

I went back to my room for curfew! You were zonked and I didn’t want to wake you… I hope you sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning!!!

  
  


She closed the text to check the time.

3:45am. 

“Shit,” Jirou muttered, falling back against her pillow and praying she’d be able to crash out again before class. 

She was having a really nice dream.

  
  


-X-

**Day 38**

Ochako didn’t mean to -- she really didn’t. But somehow she ended up walking by the washroom door during Bakugou’s shower yesterday evening and heard it.

Humming.

He was humming along to a popular j-rock song she actually knew fairly well.

And this wouldn’t have been a problem if she’d been able to get the stupid song out of her head. Even then she wouldn’t have minded too much except for the fact that she was constantly catching herself starting to hum it too, which meant Bakugou hearing her and knowing that she had  _ listened to him humming in the shower _ . 

“Cheeks!” Bakugou barked at her, snapping her attention to where he stood crouched in a fighting stance across from her, sweat dripping off him from the heat that had returned throughout the night. He was obviously hammering to blow something up which meant a higher intensity morning spar for Ochako as he eagerly awaited post-lunch training in the void. “Are you fucking daydreaming or what? I’m not winning this spar if you’re gonna be out of it the whole time.”

“No! No… I mean, yes! I was. But I’m back now. We can continue.”

His nose twitched, lip curling in that way he did when he was annoyed, but not too seriously, and she shook her shoulders before lowering herself in a mirrored position.

Then she pounced, blaring his unofficial favorite song in her mind as she dipped and spun, ready for him to dodge her. He did. She followed with a feint, and the moment he brought his arms up to guard she was already nailing him in the ribs with her leg. 

The ‘ _ oof’  _ that sounded from him sent a thrill through her as she bounced back a step, letting herself wriggle in a little dance at his keeled over form. 

“What are you singing?”

Ochako froze.

“I’m not singing!” 

She did not like that her back was to him right now.

“Roundface.”

“I wasn’t singing!” she chirped, her argument much too high-pitched to be believable and she felt his presence stalking up behind her. 

He latched a hand on her shoulder and whipped her around. “You were humming!”

“I’m allowed to hum!” she practically screeched, throwing her hands up in innocence. 

“Tch,” he scoffed, narrowing his eyes on her as a slow tinge of color rose on his ears. “Whatever.”

“Um,” she mumbled, trying to look anywhere but at him. It was difficult with how close he was. “Can we keep training?”

“ _ Fine _ .”

  
  


-X-

**Day 46**

“Are you sure about this?”

“Tch, calm down. I don’t fall.”

“Um, yeah, you do. You fell on top of me like, a month ago.”

“That was in the void! That doesn’t count,” he argued, petulantly, scowling at her over his shoulder. There was a faint line of an old scar just above his brow that Ochako had never noticed before and she wondered how he got it for a moment until he whipped his head back forward. 

She tightened her crossed legs around his waist. “Bakugou, we’re in the void right now.”

“It’s gonna be fuckin’ fine! That was one time,” he muttered and his hands let go of her thighs, reaching back to ignite and she tensed. “Oi! Let up around the neck, would you?”

“Sorry!”

He bent his knees, prepared for take off. “Ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever—”

They shot off into the open sky of the void, the air zapping into a brisk chill that bit at her cheeks in a way it hadn’t on the ground. As she adjusted to the sensation of constant movement, she opened her fists to press her fingerpads down on his chest and his gravity was nulled just in time for another explosion to pop off to her right. 

Then they were really flying. 

  
  


-X-

**Day 59**

Bakugou was literally trying to burn his hair off when she’d walked into the washroom to check on her laundry. It had grown out more and more over the last week or so and she could tell it was starting to really hinder his performance.

But he couldn’t just BLAST IT OFF.

Her hand shot out to his wrist without thinking, her eyes wide saucers as she struggled with words strong enough to yell at him over his sudden bout of stupidity.

“Just... no. Wait here.”

She practically sprinted through the narrow doorway and returned to him after a quick dig through her bag, offering the thin black elastic piece with an open palm.

“What is this?”

“A headband.”

He frowned.

“And you think I’m going to wear this?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Well you’re not going to blow up your head, so yeah. Yeah, I do.”

  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 74**

Ochako had been injured in fights plenty of times before. A punch to the face was not an entirely new concept to her, just like she was not unfamiliar with the effects of swelling and bruising. She was, however, extremely unused to the face Bakugou made every time he looked at her plump, purple and blue eye after their sparring this morning.

To her extreme pleasure, he hadn’t stopped the fight despite his split second of hesitation upon seeing the damage his fist had doled -- of which she took supreme advantage, courtesy of a fist to the solar plexus.

And though he ended up dominating the exercise today anyway, not a soul would have been able to tell with his bleak crinkled features and curling lip as he struggled to tear his eyes from what undoubtedly made her look disgusting.

It throbbed a little, but it was hardly unmanageable. Her embarrassment was limited by the fact that Bakugou was the only one who would ever see her with it and what with him being the one who gave her the shiner, she wasn’t too concerned.

And yet he seemed to be very much conflicted about it.

When dinner finally rolled around, she’d had enough.

“Why are you staring at it so much?” she snapped across the table, not bothering to hide her growing frustration as she tapped one of her fingers against her crossed arms in impatience.

He didn’t respond, didn’t even bother to look away from her at first. But finally, he spoke softer than she’d anticipated. 

“Do you really want to know?”

The polarity of their moods left her off-kilter and she chewed her lip, finger freezing its staccato rhythm. Instead of nodding, which would have jostled the swelling a bit, she answered with a boldness she found herself clinging to. 

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

He sucked in a slow breath that puffed up his chest and cheeks. “I can’t decide if I feel bad or if that looks badass as fuck.”

A barking laugh burst through her lips before she could stop it and every ache from her eye now trailed with a whisper of ‘you’re a badass’.

“Both,” she said through a simmering giggle. “Both is good.”

He made a snarky face at her, but she saw the creeping smile beneath it and she seemed to lean a bit closer at the familiarity of him.

“Whatever, Cheeks.”

She smiled up at him, still high off the first sort of real compliment he’d ever given her. “At least you didn’t bruise those, right?”

The look he gave her was nothing short of shocked and she wasn’t sure what she’d said to startle him so much, though maybe it was supposed to be a secret that he seemed to enjoy picking on her for her roundness.

It’s not like he hid it well. 

  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 88**

Ochako had been waiting for today from the moment she first witnessed the effect the void had on Bakugou the day they stepped foot into the chamber. There hadn’t been a single moment since then that she’d been able to get the image of Bakugou falling to his knees under the new, otherworldly pressure of ten times earth’s gravity -- not when the void was almost always so clearly in view. 

Today was the day she had finally managed it -- the day that she’d lowered her volume enough, little by little, to stand across from Bakugou in the void on equal ground. 

The pull of her muscles was still tight, but it hardly compared to the taut grin slathered across her face. 

“Bakugou!” she called out, her voice firm with pride and echoing through the expansive emptiness surrounding them. 

He turned to her, not lowering his open palm set for decimation. “Hah?!” 

She showed him her toothy smile and his brows dropped, unimpressed. 

“Let’s fight!” 

“We already sparred this morning.”

“But now is different!” she argued, widening her eyes as if she expected him to guess that she was no longer depending on her quirk to train off the ledge with him. 

“Agh,” he groaned, sounding more like a growl. “I’m trying something here, Cheeks.”

“Okay, but after?”

He sucked in a deep breath through his nose, locking eyes with her. “Fine. Later.”

“And what do you think of a race?”

“A race?”

“A foot race.”

He finally dropped his hand. “You really think you can run faster than me?”

“Won’t know ‘til we try,” she hummed, showcasing a competitive smirk as he reached up to briefly touch her headband, as if to make sure it was still there -- it was an idle gesture he’d picked up that she was sure he was unaware of.

He leveled her with his eyes. 

Two words were all it took to get them moving away from home in a brisk jog:

“You’re on.”

“One hundred paces!”

“Weak!”

“ _ Two  _ hundred! I’ve got the escape button!” 

“First one to the tile!”

“Ready!”

“I’m gonna fucking  _ crush  _ you, Cheeks.”

“BYE!” 

  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 94**

“Am I getting fat?”

Silence answered her from the main room as Ochako stared into the solitary mirror of the time chamber. It was small and an odd, pointed shape like so much of the temple home. Still, she could stand back a few paces and see as much of herself as she needed to. Her fingers reached for her stomach ready to pinch.

“What the  _ fuck  _ did you just ask me?”

She paled, dropping her hands. 

“I look different!” she shouted back to him. “That’s all I’m saying.”

His scoff bounced off the floor to ceiling stone tiling and she was suddenly glad there was a wall between them. “Then say that.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess.”

She couldn’t pinpoint just what felt so different about herself from the Ochako that walked into the time chamber, but when she looked at her reflection, she was obviously… different. 

There wasn’t a better word, really. 

Chewing her lip, she braced herself on the sink to lean her face toward the glass. 

Her hair was growing and though it seemed less obvious than Bakugou’s, she’d still started pulling it back with a tie every day. She hadn’t gotten any taller, sadly. Still, she could tell that her clothes were fitting a little differently and--

“Why are you staring at yourself in the mirror?”

Ochako jumped, nearly smacking her face against the wall as she spun, backing up against the sink and holding onto it with both hands. 

“Um, what?”

“Why are you just standing in the bathroom staring at yourself?”

“Don’t say it like that,” she mumbled, feeling the heavy heat of a blush crawling up her neck. 

He bobbed his head to the side. “How am I supposed to say it? Was that not what you were doing?”

“I mean, yeah.” Her eyes fell to his feet, deciding his black socks he always wore during the cold times were an easier audience. 

“So?”

She hesitated, wishing she had a way out of the room that wasn’t through Bakugou. 

“I look different.”

“Yeah, you’re fit as hell.”

Her head popped back up. “What?”

“What?” he asked, repeating her, confused. “You’ve gained muscle?”

“Oh,” she hummed, turning back on herself in the mirror. Sure enough, while her collar seemed smaller and more taut, her arms were lean and curved with dormant muscle. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right,” he scoffed at her. “Now can we go to bed already?”

“Yeah,” she said idly, her voice drifting away as her gaze lingered on the strength she’d been dreaming of finding in the chamber finally starting to stare back at her. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

  
  


-X-

**Day 112**

Ochako reclined her elbows onto the raised edge of the landing as she watched Bakugou’s glowing shadow in the darkness. He’d moved on from the strange two-handed finger gun looking pose he’d held for long enough to make her giggle and him turn around to snap at her. Now, he was attempting to point one finger vaguely into the void.

“You’re going to burn more of your clothes and run out.”

He cut a quick, “Shut your mouth, Roundface!” over his shoulder.

Sparks crackled from his palm before he seemed to let them fizzle. 

“I was totally right,” Ochako muttered to herself. 

Bakugou spun on his heel, arms fanned out ready for a fight. “You know it echoes in here, right?”

“Yep,” she said, grinning up at him.

He shook his head, grunting unintelligibly, and turned back around. 

This time he clapped his hands together, turning them flat and even with the floor below. 

She recognized his AP Shot, but he was apparently trying to alter it somehow -- unsuccessfully. The amount of effort he put into everything in the time chamber was foreign, despite seeing him train religiously even before this bizarre partnership. Now, however, she’d seen him struggle. Back in first year, she couldn’t remember him ever having to strain to be better than just about everyone, every single time. 

Bakugou was always just  _ good _ ; he didn’t struggle.

Practice? Excessively. Struggle? Not so much. 

While his giftedness was obvious, somehow she was starting to learn that he wasn’t as good as he was because he was simply born that way. 

He earned it. 

And he was more than good; He was great.

A pop sounded, smaller and sharper than any she’d heard from his quirk before. Little firecrackers shot out from his pointed fingers, bright and beautiful in the perpetual night of the void like they’d been fired from a gun. 

“Fuck yeah,” he cheered to himself softly, his eyes lingering on the sparks until they faded away in the distance. 

After a beat, Ochako asked, “What were you trying to do?”

He tilted his head, still looking off where his tiny fires had long disappeared when he answered. “My sweat is nitroglycerine. It can explode without being on my palms,” he explained, slowly drawing his attention over to her. “My hands are just my only way of lighting the match, so to speak.”

It took her a moment, but then she started to understand. “So if you can plant your sweat on things… it would be like planting a bomb that’s just waiting for you to set it off?”

“Exactly.”

“Wow,” she whispered under her breath as his shadowed form approached her, illuminated by the dim light from their little temple home that painted his glistening skin in watercolors. 

He came to her side lazily, dropping down to sit. “Hah?” 

“That’s amazing.” 

He didn’t react. Instead he stayed quiet by her side, staring out into the darkness and she realized something she’d maybe known for a while now. 

Bakugou Katsuki was incredible.

-X-

**Day 131**

“I thought it was your turn to do the laundry!”

Bakugou was pressing his hands to his nose as if he was trying not to yell at her. Meanwhile, she stumbled around their tiny quarters frantically picking up pieces of her clothes that, more often than not, ended up scattered haphazardly around her side of the sleeping nook despite the fact that she almost always changed in the washroom. 

“If it had been my turn to do laundry do you really think you would run out of clean clothes?” he asked her, his voice painted in a seriousness that assured her he was indeed trying not to yell at her. 

“I don’t know! I guess not,” she said, stuffing  _ another  _ pair of black leggings into her arms. “It’s fine! I’m doing it now!” 

“You smell!” he finally snapped.

“That’s rude!” 

His mouth popped open before he forced his jaw closed, hands hovering in front of him like he could gesture some sense into her or something. “I literally know how much you’ve sweat today, Uraraka. What are you going to do? Sleep in the same clothes you’ve trained in for ten hours?”

“I told you it’s fine!”

“There’s blood on them!”

“Not much!” 

“I swear to--” he stopped himself, turning in a circle beside their dining table, huffing while she scampered into the washroom to throw all her clothes into the wash together. When she returned his laps seemed to have stopped. He was waiting for her, resting a hand on the back of a chair. “You can just sleep in some of my clothes.”

“How come you have clean clothes?”

“Because I clean them!” he shouted, throwing a black tee shirt at her with way more force than necessary. 

It smacked her directly in the face as her hands flew up to catch it a second too late. Yanking it down, she leveled him with a stare. “Don’t yell at me!” 

“Do your laundry!” he countered, crossing the room to his bed to sit and pull his training shoes off. 

Ochako pouted, puffing out her cheeks. “What does it even matter to you?”

“I’m not letting you sleep with me when you’re covered in blood.”

“I’m not covered! It’s barely a stain!”

“It was your fucking  _ nose! _ ”

“You’re the one who hit it!” 

“You left me an opening; What was I supposed to do?!”

“That’s not the point!” 

“What is your goddamned point then?”

“I don’t know!” 

“Glad we settled that then!”

“Me too!”

“Go take a shower!” 

“No!” 

Bakugou roared out a growling moan of exasperation, dragging his hands over his face before sighing and looking over at her. Ochako shifted her weight uncomfortably beneath his full attention, but still refused to let down her crossed arms. 

“It’s cold as fuck, Cheeks. I want to go to bed.”

She swallowed, tempted. “Say you’re sorry,” she mumbled, turning her cheek to him. 

He snorted. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” she said firmly.

“I’d rather die.”

“Bakugou!” 

“Cheeks,” he said, softly. “ _ Please _ take a shower. Change your clothes to the dryer. Get in bed.”

She lowered her chin across the room, flitting her eyes in his direction. 

“I’m not saying it.”

“Ugh! Fine!” 

She threw down her arms and she knew she was being childish, but for whatever reason she couldn’t let it go. But after some time spent in the shower the entire reason why she was even mad at him started to slip through her fingers. Was she wanting him to apologize for elbowing her in the face? She’d definitely knocked the wind out of him and left a fresh bruise on his side, not to mention all the previous times she’d made  _ him  _ bleed on his clothes. Was it for yelling at her? She’d yelled at him too. 

Her last resort was because he said she smelled and she couldn’t even begin to cook that up into another argument with a straight face. 

By the time she emerged from the bath after turning her laundry, all her anger had ebbed away, weariness taking its place. She fell onto one knee over his bed, crawling into his side, wearing his shirt.

“Sorry,” she mumbled into his shoulder. 

His knuckle raised to brush across her arm and chills flushed over her skin, her stress turning in a sharp new direction as they settled in for the night. 

“Me too.” 

-X-

  
  


**Day 152**

Ochako didn’t want to open her eyes. 

Not because she wanted to cling to those last precious moments of sleep before woefully dragging herself out of bed.

No. It was because she wasn’t cold. 

She wasn’t cold and yet she could still feel the press of Bakugou’s skin against her cheek, his body behind her where she’d apparently glued herself -- one of his arms lax between hers where she held on like he was her stuffed animal from back home that had retired to sit on the perpetually made bed of her parents’ house. 

The two of them had cuddled up together every cold night since the very first -- seemingly so long ago. Huddling together for warmth against a biting frost was definitely not (nor had it ever been!) real cuddling. 

But this…

They were cuddling. 

A long sigh riddled with thick, conflicting emotions escaped her and his arm moved along with her deep breath. 

What was she supposed to do with this?

Did she need to extricate herself?

Move back to her own bed?

Would he be mad that she’d stayed?

Would he be mad that she  _ didn’t _ ?

He jostled, adjusting on his back and sucking in sleepy air. His arm tightened on her naturally, hugging her to him and she tensed as his hand rose over her hip to encircle her waist and hold her there. 

She couldn’t possibly get up now, right?

She’d just have to wait until morning -- until he woke up to this too and separated them. 

Except when the time came, he didn’t.

  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 176**

“Your aerial work is getting better.”

Ochako swallowed her food, dropping her hands behind her to lean back on the blanket they’d laid out in the middle of the void. “You think so?”

Bakugou nodded, tossing back another piece of dinner. 

“I need a propulsion system that isn’t you,” she said, bending an ear to her shoulder and staring out into the empty grey of the void with novelty. 

They’d seen the bright white of day and the deep, dark encompassing blackness of night time and time again. The shift had always been almost instantaneous, but when the void seemed to be fading slowly into shadows over dinner she’d dragged them both out into it for a picnic. 

She hadn’t commented on Bakugou’s lack of a fight. 

“Talk to Support.”

“Yeah,” she said, her voice lightening up as the night gently pressed in around them. 

They ate in amiable silence. It was a comfort she hadn’t given much thought to with all their routine, but after changing it up a bit she realized that it was nice just being around Bakugou. That air about him that inspired her to be her best had never once wavered over the blur of days behind them and she had to admit that growing closer to him was… nice. 

Officially sharing a bed no matter the weather didn’t hurt either.

“I had an idea about the volume thing,” he said, breaking the quiet. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his bent knees and she was struck by how long they’d gotten once again. He was already much taller than her to begin with, but this was just unfair. 

“Hm?”

“If you set me at about fifty percent in a fight, I’d be quick enough to land a few good hits in and still fly up to you at zero… or maybe five percent. Then we could do the whole slingshot thing, you smash ‘em, get out of there, and boom. Combo achieved.”

She chuckled at him. “You sound like a video game.”

“But it would work,” he pressed and she dropped her head back between her loose shoulders, puffing out her cheeks in idle thought. 

“I mean, yeah. But how does the fifty percent on you change anything?”

He looked offended. “Well, first of all, you’ve practiced the shit out of using that volume control on me so you gotta use it sometime and secondly, it’d speed up the whole move enough to be a surprise every time.”

She scrunched her lips together. “Not  _ every  _ time.”

“Pretty much.”

“We could come up with other combinations that start the same way. Keep ‘em guessing,” she offered. 

“Definitely.”

A breath of a laugh escaped her lips. “We’re quite the team.”

“Hn,” he hummed after a beat, tensing.

“Who knew all it took to work with Bakugou Katsuki was to be able to make him go  _ zoom _ .”

He snapped his attention to her, eyes narrowed. “That’s not why I work with you.”

“Oh?” she said, avoiding his stare by watching as the otherworldly glow from the house seemed to bleed into the deepening sky around them further than she’d ever seen it reach before. “Then I guess it just takes being locked in a room together for six months.”

His arms fell, legs sinking to cross together beneath him. “For fuck’s sake, Cheeks. I don’t work with someone just because I have no other option.”

She should have said something. She shouldn’t have let the conversation die out and she shouldn’t have let him see a peek of the smallest thoughts in the back of her mind during all the times they’d spent training their quirks together. The insecurities bled over into the shared meals, the shared conversations, the shared sleeping arrangement.

When would it all end?

The glow that spilled from home turned green at first, catching her eye. 

“Wha--”

She looked straight up. 

Slowly, the sky painted itself. A featherlight hue shifted above them, twisting from green to blue, deep like the sea before whispering into a rich violet. The void was alight, washed with colors stretched over them like taffy clouds of vibrant, translucent life. 

Ochako’s lips had parted at the sight and she reached out a hand to tap Bakugou’s shoulder without looking at him. 

“Bakugou, are you seeing this?”

When he didn’t answer, she turned.

Only to see him watching her, unmoved from where he’d landed in offense earlier. His eyes roved over her face, his features soft in thought and striped in a reflection of technicolors. 

“What?”

He didn’t answer for a while and something about ignoring the light show in the night sky above them to look at each other set Ochako’s nerves on edge. 

Slowly, Bakugou lifted a hand toward her. 

It paused in the air between them, as if he second guessed himself, before he reached for her face and tucked some of her too-long hair behind her ear as she sat frozen in place. 

“I’m glad you picked me, Uraraka.”

  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 177**

Ochako woke in the early hours of the morning to find their hands still intertwined. 

She smiled against Bakugou’s chest and drifted back to sleep.

She was having a really nice dream.

  
  


-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I am just really emotional about this chapter (as anyone from Twitter knows). 
> 
> I'm pretty sure this is my favorite thing I've ever written. It started with so much anxiety because I was so scared what people would think of a big time skip chapter, but I reminded myself that I'm writing for me first and foremost & quite a few of my friends helped me along the way. 
> 
> This started with text message ideas to Lorrin that I literally copied and pasted from iMessage into my Google doc....and it just slowly became this and I'm just so happy with it. 5049 words of my whole heart. Sigh.
> 
> I hope that it was as much a ride for you guys as it is for me & I hope so deeply that it took you along with me and kacchako through these five months that this chapter spans.
> 
> Bigger sigh.
> 
> Ten points to everyone who guesses the movie Kaminari played in the opener. 
> 
> Pls pls pls let me know what you think!
> 
> So much love and gratitude,  
> -Jaryn


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bakugou is acting weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Playlist for this chapter should be played in order! You can listen on Spotify: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2jPc8bKpI0WsyQhqtk73lN?si=4c6KYCZUR6GYOuoMmrD7GA)

  
  


**-X-**

Kirishima Eijiro ran a thumb over the pink fingers in his hand. 

“You think they’re okay?”

Mina rolled her head over his pillow, her dark, golden eyes glowing in the dim light of his bedside lamp. “You’re worrying too much.”

“Am I though?”

She barked a laugh, high pitched like a bell, as she squeezed his hand. “Probably not.”

“How long has it been for them now?”

Mina’s brows fell. “Um. Math is not my strong suit.”

“Mine either.”

They sighed. 

Kirishima let her hand drop and she palmed his chest, just over his heart, swirling an idle finger. 

“He’s gonna kill us for the condom thing.”

“Nah,” Mina said with a wave, propping herself up on an elbow before Kirishima opened his arms for her to slide over onto his shoulder. “He’ll blame Kaminari and Sero.”

“You’re probably right,” he said softly into the early morning hours.

He felt her cheeks pull into a grin. “I’m always right.”

Nuzzling into her wild hair that still smelled of her shampoo, he hummed. “Think they’ll use them?”

“Probably not. But a nudge in the right direction never hurt.”

He huffed a laugh, pink hair blowing away from his cheeks. “The day I see Bakugou dating is the day I kiss Todoroki on the mouth.”

Mina popped up on extended elbows. “Is that a bet?”

He couldn’t help the wide stretch of a smile that lit on sight of her eager eyes. 

“Sure.”

She thrust a fist to the air in quiet victory.

“Now, c’mon,” Kirishima said, pulling her back into his embrace. “We gotta go back to sleep.”

“Maybe if you didn’t wake me up with your…”

“ _ Mina! _ ”

“Fine, fine.”

  
  
  


**-X-**

**Day 184**

They revolved around each other. 

Though they had already, Ochako supposed as she lingered in bed the same way she did every day now. Coming to terms with her desire to stay cuddled up to him hadn’t been as difficult as she’d thought. However, the way Bakugou let them stretch their lazy mornings more and more ever since their picnic made her head spin.

What were they doing?

He grunted beside her, her cue that he was awake, though she’d already known by the shallow breaths that moved beneath her arm. Nervously, as if this new thing could fall apart with her touch, she tightened her hold around him. He rolled, shuffling in the blankets until he faced her. Lowering his nose to her hair, he took a deep breath. 

She pressed her cheek into his chest, taking in the smell of his clean shirt. 

“What do you want to do today?” she mumbled into him.

“Mm,” he grumbled, his lips tickling her just above her forehead. “We could move the spar to the landing.”

“Why?” she asked instinctively.

“To test the difference,” he said, shifting away from her to look down for a beat. “We’ll need to make sure we’re used to normal gravity in a fight by the time we go back.”

She stiffened. “Makes sense.”

“Should be easier.”

“Yeah.”

He separated them more fully, drawing his face down toward hers. “Why do you get like that?”

“Like what?” Ochako tensed, feeling the bite of a blush.

“You get weird every time we talk about leaving.”

“No, I don’t,” she argued, racking her brain for whether or not he was right. 

His eyes scanned her face. 

“I guess,” she started, avoiding his stare, “it’ll just feel weird, you know? Seeing everyone again… and knowing they won’t even miss us.”

A twitch flickered his lip. “That’s dumb.”

“Hey!” She shoved his shoulder, his hands reflexively tightening around her waist to keep them close. “It is  _ not  _ dumb. I mean, you haven’t seen Kirishima in half a year, but he saw you… twelve hours ago? Won’t you want to hug him or something?”

Bakugou barked a non-laugh. “Do you know who you’re talking to?”

“Yes,” she said surely, “and?”

“I’m not hugging anybody.”

“Uh huh.”

He grumbled then, pulling her to him and she wished she could still see his face. She adjusted in his hold, resting against the crook of his neck. 

“I know I’m gonna hug everyone,” she mused, letting her eyes fall away into her imagination as the ticking of the clocks spread low and whimsical around them. “I miss my friends -- Tsu, Iida, Deku… even Todoroki. The whole class really!” She chuckled to herself a bit. “They’re probably going to all think I’m crazy.”

“They already do, Cheeks.”

She yanked herself away to look down on his unamused face. 

He snorted. “Because you picked me for this hellhole. Now, c’mon. Get up. Let’s go.”

The spot he left behind was cold as he voided the bed to crouch over his laundry and pick out his training clothes. Not letting herself linger with the new stirring in her chest, she crawled toward her own bed and used her new favorite part of her volume control -- the moonwalk. 

Read: making herself float  _ just  _ enough to bounce from one bed to the other without having to get up— or send herself to the ceiling. 

She released with arms extended to catch herself before making her way to the edge and leaning over to dig through her clothes. 

“Lazy,” Bakugou called out as he approached the washroom. 

She fisted her shorts and turned to stick her tongue out at him. With a spark of inspiration, she sprung from the bed and darted for the washroom door, only to nearly be close-lined by Bakugou’s outstretched arm.

“What are you doing?”

Frowning, she admitted defeat. “I wanted to beat you.”

“Why didn’t you just ask to go first?”

She perked, looking up at him. “Can I go first?”

“No.”

“Mean!” She moved to push his shoulder for the second time this morning and he caught her wrist and drew it to him. Suddenly the narrow space between them in the doorway seemed too thick as she realized how close they were.

Why was she like this? Why did she have to make things weird? She was literally just entangled with him in bed, but something about the way he held back her hand between their chests, looking down on her with narrowed eyes…

It did things to her. 

And then all she could think about was kissing him. 

It was a haunting thought, creeping into her every waking hour since the picnic and slipping itself into her dreams in a myriad of scenarios that she’d locked away for the sake of her sanity. 

But now, inches from his face, she couldn’t help but let her eyes fall miserably helpless to his lips. 

The clocks whispered around them.

When she looked back at him he was watching her openly.

And then a small scowl curved his features and he stepped into the washroom, shutting the door in her face. 

A thin, slicing thing fell through her chest and she blinked.

But she’d thought that… 

She retreated to her bed and pulled out their music player, holding it to her chest for a quick burst of comfort before ripping her curtains closed to change haphazardly in the meager space. Deciding to forgo her morning shower, she hurried out to the void to keep from running into Bakugou.

The volume control melted her gravity intuitively as she stepped off the white tile with a closed fist, pressing all five finger pads to her skin. She jumped a few times, testing the additional height along with its lag time. There was no need for it anymore, but the skill felt sentimental by now and she was determined to create ways to incorporate the volume control into her fighting style. 

She moved through a few warm ups, stretching her body into broad and twisted poses, always searching for ways to sneak in a release to switch between modes of gravity. It tested her creativity as well as her stomach. Though she hadn’t thrown up in a while, the nausea alone could be debilitating. Bending and reshaping herself as sweat started to peek on her brows, she imagined being in the fits of battle. There was no time to be sick, no time to throw up, no time to hesitate. 

Bakugou joined her shortly and she waited for him to go back to ignoring her -- to train alone on the other side of the void. 

An inner war began. 

Ochako knew him fairly well by now. She knew that he hated mismatched socks and ate like a toddler: either slowly, with contentedly closed lips or like a complete monster wolfing down the nutrients he, apparently, desperately needed -- depending on how much he’d used his quirk beforehand. She knew that he preferred two showers a day to remove the lingering explosives that were his every drop of sweat. She knew that he liked to listen to some type of alternative indie hip-hop she’d never heard of, but found herself enjoying, and she knew that he did not talk about himself in the time chamber -- not in the boasting way he would in front of the class back on the outside. 

And yet she had no idea what he was ever thinking or feeling. 

He had become human to her over these months, but still, he was a machine. 

Had he seen her looking at his lips and realized they’d crossed too many lines?

Had he known she wanted to kiss him and realized he didn’t want to kiss her back?

What if he thought she was stupid for her feelings?

Because she definitely had feelings at this point. There was no way she could explain away the stutters of her heart constantly vying for her attention anytime he was within an arm’s reach. 

Was she being too obvious?

Did she need to--

“Oi!”

Her eyes shot to him.

In a fresh all black outfit, he stood at the dropoff with his arms crossed tightly across his chest. He raised a brow at her. “You forfeiting the spar today or something?”

She paused, making sure she’d heard him right. 

“I’d rather die,” she said finally, stealing a few of his favorite words and earning herself a sharp grin before she stepped up onto the landing. 

She braced herself in a defensive position.

And they fought.

The rest of the day moved along the same as so many others. 

She worked on more volume jumps, adjusting to the altered speed and determining which levels were useful and which would be a hindrance in a high stakes situation. Bakugou pushed his explosions further, resulting in a trip to the medicine cabinet in the pantry for bandages that she forced him to let her put on as he grumbled from his seat on the edge of his bed. 

And when the day was done, he waited for her to slide under the blankets beside him before resting his head on his pillow. She waited for his breaths to even out in sleep before cracking open her eyes to steal one more peek before doing the same. 

**-X-**

**Day 199**

“It’s a cool movie.”

Ochako’s hair swished against her neck, longer than it had ever been before. It stuck in pieces to her blooming sweat, magnified by the current heat. “And it’s about what again?”

Bakugou whipped a quick look over his shoulder between them to check their distance from home. “A guy with multiple personalities.”

“That’s… kinda creepy.”

“It’s supposed to be creepy!”

She loosened her hanging fists at her ribs and held them in a placating gesture. “I believe you! But, like, he kills people right?”

“One of his personalities does,” he answered, his head bobbing in her peripherals as he jogged beside her. “He has twelve or something.”

“Does he kill the girls he--one of his personalities kidnaps?”

“Tch,” he scoffed at her, shooting her a side-eyed glare. “I’m not gonna ruin the fucking movie for you, Cheeks.”

She frowned. “I might not ever watch it, you know.”

“You should!” he snapped and she smiled as he checked their position again. “Time to turn.”

They slowed, pivoting on a foot before picking up their pace to return. 

“Ask me what my favorite movie is.”

Silence -- aside from their huffing breaths. 

“Bakugou!”

He snorted, tapping his headband just above his ear. “Fine. What’s your favorite movie?”

“I dun’ know,” she drawled, raising a finger to tap her chin while her other hand swayed with her steps. “That’s hard.”

“You asked me to ask you!” he raged, quickening his too-long legs. She matched him as their jog became a run.

“I know,” she laughed and he groaned. Sliding her elbow up to his arm, she poked him. “Race?”

“You’re on, Roundface.”

Ochako ducked, slipping her fingers together in the process before making a fist to shoot herself to the side, lighter once more. Bakugou’s arm swung half-heartedly above her as he stayed in tune with her methods, adjusting his stance to her movement. He crouched, guarding his middle and she darted away again, staying close in the spar and waiting for any possible opening--

There.

She jabbed out the butt of her palm to his shoulder, just to make him flinch so she could change course for his ribs. But he was not so easily disturbed. He stuck an arm out beneath hers, raising it to force her to spin before pressing in. Wrapping an arm around her chest and the other around her collar, he immobilized her against him. 

“Gotcha,” his gruff voice said in her ear. 

She flailed her arms petulantly. Their size difference was both annoying and distracting. He’d already been half a foot taller than her to begin with, but neither of them had really foreseen him having a growth spurt. She’d maybe grown a centimeter -- if that -- while he’d surely be taller than Todoroki and they still had five months to go.

She snapped her eyes up to him over her shoulder. 

And when she saw him curled over her, watching her eyes with victory, she realized he hadn’t eased his hold on her. She could feel the entire length of his body at her back, the taut muscles of his arms fresh after a fight against her chest. Their sweat from the heat of the day felt distorted, her mind swimming as she absorbed this moment; She wanted to remember what this felt like.

A blush crawled its way up her too-hot cheeks and his eyes flickered over them, as if he was finally understanding their position as well. His gaze dropped to her lips and she felt a firecracker pop of hope crackling in her heart. 

He dropped his arms and stepped away. 

“Time for lunch.”

She stood in his wake, watching him turn on his heel to head back inside. She idled there for a beat and then two and three. 

This was the second time he’d outright snubbed her.

Was this all in her head?

Was this thing they’d been toying around with for weeks now even real?

Pretending she wasn’t hanging her head, she followed him to find her food already spread out on the table and waiting for her. 

She avoided him the rest of the day, wallowing through her solo training. Muscle memory saved her, because she’d never felt so distracted. Anytime she’d started to rein herself in, she would look over and see him wearing her headband or in the midst of something acrobatic that inevitably exposed a part of his hard stomach and she was sent reeling again.

After dinner, she told him she didn’t want to train their rocketship method saying she was working on something earlier she needed to see through. 

“Oh yeah?” he’d said, raising an unconvinced brow. 

But she couldn’t bring herself to be that close to him again just yet. 

“Yep.”

She wrapped up early, mostly wasting the evening standing out in the void. Her shower was long and she was grateful for the seemingly never-ending supply of hot water. All her stored images of Bakugou making rounds through her mind kept her head beneath the spray -- all the grumpy morning faces and super-charged adrenaline grins and curiously open eyes reading her every response. 

There had to be some kind of psychology that would explain all of this. They were trapped together, essentially. It had only been natural for them to grow closer, to become so accustomed to the other’s presence. They both needed comfort, right? Maybe Bakugou was simply finding comfort in her nearness -- not actual feelings. Meanwhile, she’d slowly begun to romanticize their entire stay.

She chided herself mentally. This was an opportunity. A place for training. 

They came here to grow as individuals, not together.

And anything else, well, she’d have to get over it until they were back on the outside.

Then maybe she would move on -- get back to reality instead of this warped, other-worldly room where she let herself believe Bakugou might actually have feelings for her beyond a forced training partner. 

All this time she’d been worried about things ending between them after the chamber and she’d never considered it ending inside.

Still, she couldn’t help but think it  _ was  _ real. 

It felt real.

Turning the water off, she reached for her towel and dressed for bed. 

When she emerged from the washroom, Bakugou was still training. She stood before their open-curtained beds and felt a choice impress on her. She dragged herself into bed, and blessedly fell asleep quickly. 

Something squeezed her shoulder and she winced. Dragging her eyes open to the still-light room, she tensed, yawning through a full body stretch.

“Bakugou?”

“Why are you sleeping in your bed?” his voice was soft and buried, a grumble in his chest. 

She rolled over, closing her eyes. “It’s my bed.”

“You sleep in my bed every night, Cheeks,” he said, dropping his hand back to her shoulder and tugging slightly. 

She shooed his touch with loose fingers, still not looking at him. “I’m allowed to want to sleep in my own bed.”

He must have paused then, silence filling the air.

“What’s wrong?”

Ochako’s grip on her blankets eased. 

Was Bakugou… trying to comfort her?

She pulled herself up against the small headboard, letting the covers drop to her lap as she faced him. He sat on the edge of his bed, leaning between them with his elbows on his knees. 

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said slowly. “I just wanted some… space. I guess.”

He straightened, his hair still half damp from his shower. “You’re lying, but fine.”

“Don’t be mean,” she frowned at him, stiffening as a now familiar prickling came to life behind her eyes. 

His jaw clenched. “Don’t lie.”

She stared at him, her brow furrowing. 

“You want me to be honest?” She moved, coming to the edge of her own bed to buckle their knees together. “Fine. You want to  _ cuddle _ ,” he flinched at the word, “with me every night but then every time we have these…  _ moments _ , you slam the door in my face! And I don’t get it. And I don’t like it. So I’m avoiding you.”

Bakugou’s jaw slackened despite the tension in his shoulders.

“What ‘ _ moments _ ’?”

“I want to kiss you!” 

She’d blurted it out, her blush as strong as her intense desire to cry as she threw her hands up at him, whipping her face away.

There was a pause and then, “I can’t kiss you.”

The first track of a tear fell down her cheek and she swiped it away furiously. 

“Not when you like Deku.”

She stilled.

“What did you say?”

“I know you like Deku,” he said softer than anytime she’d ever heard him outside their bed-sharing rituals. 

Tears pooled beneath her vision and she blinked them away, looking at his stricken features. 

It started with a bubble of air, like a cough. Her shoulders shook and another huff spilled from her lips until she was clutching her stomach as giggles poured out of her and tears slid from her tightly squeezed eyes. 

“Stop it! Fuck!” Bakugou nearly growled, his tone a little strange.

She held up a weak hand. “I’m… sorry… it’s just…”

Pulling herself together, she sat up and faced him.

“Bakugou, that was six months ago.”

His lip curled as he looked past her.

Sucking in a sigh, she wiped her face clean. 

“Honestly?” His eyes slid to her. “I kinda forgot about all of that.”

Bakugou was stoic, his jaw adjusting in thought. 

“I mean, Deku is one of my best friends... but it’s like, well. I couldn’t get it out of my head that before I came in here he told me that I could learn so much from you. And, well, um, I confessed to him back then -- right before we came in here,” she stuttered out, running her fingers through her now too-long hair. “He turned me down to focus on being a hero, which I totally get but then like, I’m in here with you and you’ve never once looked at me like a burden. In fact, now that I think about it, you’ve always seen me as competition and always taken me seriously and I guess it made me stop caring about a crush on someone who didn’t see that I was great too... If that makes sense? Like, everyone knows you both are two of the strongest in our class but you’ve.. I guess you’ve always made me feel like I’m the strongest too.” 

She chewed on her lip and moved over to his side, resting her leg against his as she looked up at him while he watched her. 

“And besides… I chose you. Even before I knew it, I chose you.”

Her heart hammered in her chest as she reached out a hand to wrap around his bicep, pulling him toward her. 

And then she let herself do the very thing that had been screaming through her dreams for weeks now.

She kissed him. 

Their lips pressed together awkwardly at first, his hands ghosting around her waist before settling. He held her in place like she’d run away, pulling them apart for a breath before tilting his chin to kiss her again. This time they fit together in all the right ways, her hand slipping up his chest to his neck as they moved against each other’s mouths. 

The clocks echoed behind them, the void a whir in the distance as she lost track of how long they stayed that way. They kissed until she was nearly in his lap, his arms holding her close as she breathed in the smell of his soap. 

When they finally tore themselves apart, he didn’t let go so she rested her head on his chest. 

The silence was sweet and comfortable between them and then Bakugou spoke.

“Does this mean you’ll sleep in my bed tonight?”

She laughed -- wholly and fully -- and when she looked up at him he was smirking down at her. 

“Absolutely.”

**-X-**

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND THE CHOIR SINGS!!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up in the time chamber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS GUYS GUYS
> 
> THERE IS FANART OF THE PICNIC SCENE!!!!!
> 
> DONE BY THE WONDERFUL @CATATTEMPTSART ON TWITTER
> 
> YOU CAN LOOK AT IT [HERE](https://twitter.com/CatAttemptsArt/status/1265082488961015811?s=20)!!!!
> 
> SHES BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR SO LONG AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH PLEASE GO LIKE ALL OF HER ART!!!!!!!
> 
> oh yeah and the playlist for this chapter lmfaooooo is [here!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mXLouQ0664OhHCXF03lla?si=2Qkf1CvCQuiDUbj-xHwspw)
> 
> MY BAD WAY TOO EXCITED ABOUT THE ART GO LOOK AT IT AND LIKE IT AND FOLLOW CAT OMG

-X-

Satou Rikidou was a little sad for his Wednesday ritual this week. 

His alarm had been silenced for a few minutes, but he couldn’t seem to stop staring at the dark ceiling of his dorm room. Dawn wouldn’t welcome him for another two hours, but the loss of sleep was a sacrifice he made for the sake of his quirk -- and his free time after classes. 

Waking up early one day a week to bake all the sweets he’d need was an event he’d started a few months into his first year. Originally, he’d dreaded the early morning routine.

That is, until Uraraka discovered his secret baking. 

_‘Oooooh,’_ she’d said, _‘How many cookies did you say? Wait, TEN CAKES?!’_

She’d begun to join him for the three months at the end of last year, dragging her socked feet into the kitchen and rubbing at her zombified eyes only to collapse over the table for most of the morning. Still, she made an effort to help mix at least one set of batters or crack all his eggs for him. 

He sighed, pushing his blanket aside to throw his feet to the floor. 

4:30 was really too early. 

But even then, he’d likely still have to compensate with additional baking in the afternoons and on their day off. 

It was a sugar-filled struggle. 

He changed quickly before taking the stairs down to the first floor for a small burst of cardio to wake him up fully. When he turned the corner to the kitchen, he paused, resting a hand on the wall for stability.

“Midoriya?”

Green hair swished through the artificial light dimly illuminating the couch his classmate was curled up on. “Satou!” Midoriya whisper-yelled. “Hey.”

Satou raised his brows in concern. “Why are you awake this early? Have you slept?”

“Oh,” Midoriya said, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. “Yeah! Um, I just thought you might miss having a helper. Sorry, I should have asked.”

“No, no.” Satou pushed off the wall, tentatively crossing through the common room. “It’s fine. Do you bake?”

Midoriya popped up from his seat with more energy than he should be allowed to have. “Not really… but I can follow instructions!”

Satou forced an awkward chuckle. “Okay, cool. Well, I guess you know that Uraraka normally does this with me…” When Midoriya didn’t answer, he continued, “She usually cracks all the eggs and washes all the measuring instruments when they need to be reused.”

“Ah, okay,” the smaller boy answered, coming to Satou’s side as they stepped into the kitchen. “I can do that.”

Midoriya stood idly by while Satou poured through cabinets to compile all his bowls and pans and the quiet thickened between them, only broken by a soft clang here and there. While Satou reached into the fridge for eggs, he dared a glance at the other strength-based quirk user. Midoriya’s eyes were somewhere far away, his shoulder’s slumped and suddenly Satou felt like he was intruding despite the fact that Midoriya had been the one to crash his morning.

“Ah, well,” Satou said, extending a stack of massive bowls. “If you could crack four eggs into each of these…”

“Sure!” Midoriya snapped up, eagerly reaching for them before they all slipped between both of their fingers. A clatter of metal rang through the common room and Satou’s eyes flashed toward the elevators as if Iida would instantly appear to chide their noisiness. 

“Sorry,” Midoriya said softly. “I guess I’m a little distracted.”

“Oh, no,” Satou said, waving a hand. “It happens all the time. Uraraka was always dropping mixing spoons with batter still hanging off. At least we don’t really have to clean up a mess.”

Midoriya only nodded, crouching to gather the bowls before taking them to the sink to rinse. 

Satou stared at the waiting oven, repeating a mantra in his head.

Don’t get involved.

Don’t get involved.

Don’t get involved.

But he couldn’t stand to see someone hurting. 

“You, uh,” he started, “miss her?”

“Huh?” Midoriya said, followed by another crash of a bowl into the sink overshadowing the soft run of water. “Oh. Um, yeah, I guess so.”

“I mean, since you must have been thinking about her to want to come help me.” Satou reached for the dial, ignoring Midoriya’s clumsiness to turn on the preheat. “I just figured.”

“Well,” Midoriya started, “I guess I’m just worried about her. I know Kacchan isn’t the easiest person to get along with and… I guess I do miss her.”

Satou nodded, refusing to turn and look at the other boy.

Then, softly, he heard Midoriya whisper one last thing, almost to himself.

“I wish it was me in there with her.”

They finished the rest of the baking in silence.

Satou just wished Uraraka and Bakugou would come back already.

It was going to be a long morning.

  
  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 207**

“What is that?”

“Huh?” Bakugou looked up at her from his place in bed, closing his fist around the small metal object Ochako had spotted as she stepped out of the washroom. He looked away in the darkness. “It’s nothing.”

“What happened to ‘don’t lie’?” she asked, stepping toward him on bare feet. 

He grumbled under his breath, pulling the arm tucked under his head to his side. He sat up as she settled on the edge of the bed. “It’s a carabiner.”

“Oh,” she said, reaching for it. He hesitated before opening his hand to her. “Is this your personal effect?”

“Yeah,” he grunted.

She turned over the clip in her fingers, using both hands to keep from altering its gravity. 

“What’s it for?”

“Climbing,” he answered, watching her study the tool. “Mountain climbing.”

She looked up. “That’s right. You’ve taken Kirishima mountain climbing before, huh?”

“Fuckin’ Shitty Hair...”

“It must be fun.”

His eyes flicked back to her, the usual tension in his face missing.

She smiled at him. “I mean, for you to have chosen to bring this, it has to be fun. You must really love it.”

“Yeah.” He scanned her face for a moment before returning his attention to the carabiner. “It’s… freeing.”

Ochako sucked in a breath and tried not to show her excitement at his admission.

What did being free mean to Bakugou Katsuki?

“I think… I think that it would make me feel really empowered.”

“Hn,” he hummed. He leaned across the bed to reclaim his keepsake, but to her surprise, his touch lingered even after she’d relinquished the tool. Running a thumb over her palm and then each of her fingerpads, he said, “I could show you.”

She wrapped four fingers around his wrist and his eyes darted to hers.

“I’d like that,” she said, dropping her hold on him carefully before crawling over to his side so she could lean her full weight against his arm. 

He bowed his head, snapping the clip open and shut, the metallic beat echoing through the night-filled room.

“What’s yours?”

She looked up at him. “My what?”

“Your personal effect.”

She tipped her head, hair spilling over her shoulder and smiled. “My orange shirt.”

“The one you wear too much and wash in the sink?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “It’s from my parents’ construction business. I wore it all summer long when I worked there before my first year to help pay for tuition. I’m scared it’ll fall apart in the wash in its condition.”

He was quiet, his eyes roving over her features. 

“It reminds me of them…” she continued, “but I miss my family all year long since they live so far away, so this hasn’t been too much harder.”

It was bittersweet to think about but in the end, her parents had shaped who she was -- who she was becoming at UA and who she was becoming in the time chamber.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Ochako turned to him, dropping her hands in the lap of her criss-crossed legs. “Like what?”

“Like a…” he started, scowling slightly. “You look all dopey.”

She watched him for a moment, studying his curious frown. Then she latched her hands around his bicep and rested her cheek on his shoulder. 

“I’m just happy.”

“Hn,” he grunted and looked away from her. “It’s just another day”

“I know.” She sighed, breathing in the smell of his skin fresh from a shower. “But do you ever just feel really grateful?”

He dipped his chin to her and raised a single brow. “Grateful?”

“Yeah.” She grinned up at him before nuzzling into his arm. “I’m just… really happy to be here. I’m grateful that I was given this opportunity. Grateful for the extra time… grateful for the school I go to that gave it to me. I’m grateful I got to spend it with you.”

His eyes widened and lingered on her.

She huffed a laugh and leaned up toward him where he met her in a kiss. He drew his free hand up to hold her face and she couldn’t help smiling into his lips. 

“Thank you,” she whispered as they pulled apart.

“I didn’t do anything,” he growled low, a pink tinge rising to his ears as he avoided her bright stare. 

“You didn’t have to.”

He pulled back, his gaze flickering over her as she smiled a sleepy smile.

“Do you want to do it tonight?” he asked finally.

She tipped her head. “Do what?”

“Watch the hourglasses.”

“You remembered!” she said, perking up and dropping his arm. “I’d love to!”

He mumbled something, looking down at where she tapped her fingerpads together in a restless rhythm.

“But,” she started again, “will that mess up our schedule for tomorrow?”

Narrowing his eyes, he reached out to clasp one of her hands in his, the carabiner lost in their blanket. “It’ll be fine… as long as we don’t make it a habit.”

“Thank you,” she said, softly. “I’m excited.”

“Obviously,” he snarked, but his easy smile betrayed him and her own spread, cracking open across her face.

“Let’s go!” 

She jerked him along, flying off the bed and he narrowly grabbed at the blanket beneath them as she dragged him behind her outside to the hourglass by their pantry. It was poised high off the tile, more so than the other. She let go of Bakugou and stepped toward it, raising a hand to trace the glass bottom with two fingers. 

It was a mystical sight: the way the sand glowed golden like the bars that held it together, ebbing and flowing in an ethereal anti-gravity that reminded her of herself. 

When she turned, Bakugou was touching down the last corners of their blanket in a perfect square and she brightened at the memory of their picnic in the void surrounded by lights. They had never seen the auras of color again, but she still hoped they might return just one more time before they had to leave. 

“Do you think it rotates?” she asked idly, moving toward him.

“Tch,” he scoffed. “I’ve never heard it at night.”

“Neither have I,” she protested. 

“That’s because,” he said as he sat down, catching her calf in his hand and squeezing in pulses until she lowered beside him, “you sleep like the dead.”

“I do not!”

“You definitely fuckin’ do, Cheeks.”

She crossed her arms and looked away until a finger lightly flicked against her cheek. Whipping around, she stuck out her tongue at him and he laughed a pure, real laugh she’d never heard before even after all these months.

Eyes shining, she dove for him. They collapsed to the floor together, her arms wrapped around his neck as she kissed him boldly and after a pause, his hands found her waist. When she pulled back he was smirking up at her, surrounded by the curtain of her hair. 

“What was that for?”

Ochako shook her head lightly. 

“I’m just really happy.”

His smirk softened, and for the first time she realized their positions. She froze atop him, feeling every place their bodies were touching. Heat blossomed behind her cheeks, but she couldn’t make herself crawl off of him yet. 

His eyes roamed her face, and she felt the pressure building between them. It was this new thing she had started to experience ever since the night of their first kiss. For whatever reason sleeping together afterward had felt weighted, like every time they touched was now something more. It was a quiet thing, waiting for them to explore and though Ochako distantly understood those feelings, she wasn’t sure what to do with them yet. 

“Hn,” he grunted, sparing her from their silence. “Good.”

She fell into his side, propped up by his shoulder with his arm ever present against her back. He had to jostle her awake to see it — the enchanted way the golden sand finally emptied only to swirl its way back to the top half in a single, otherworldly stream. 

The next day she woke still tucked into his chest, the soft mattress of his bed beneath them. 

-X-

**Day 213**

“When did you get so small?”

Ochako ducked, twisting in the heat to spring to his left. “I haven’t changed at all,” she said, her voice breathless mid-spar. 

“Tch,” he grunted a derived laugh. 

“You’ve just become a giant!” she half-yelled throwing up a block as he read her movements. She needed to become less predictable. Reading the opponent was one of Bakugou’s specialties and she had to use this time with him to keep herself a step ahead. 

“Don’t blame your shortcomings on someone else, Cheeks.” He landed a blow to her shoulder and she balked a step. 

“Is that a pun? A joke? From Bakugou?” she said, tossing her voice into a teasing lilt as she danced around his next attack. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Shut the hell up,” he drawled, closing in on her. 

She grinned at his light tone, catching and diverting his next punch to open up his middle. Drawing in close, she let their chests brush as she looked up at him with a wicked smirk. 

He pinched his lips together, fighting a sweaty smile. 

And then she’d meant to push him away to start their footwork all over again, but her arms wouldn’t listen. With one hand still against his forearm, she froze, glancing at her other palm pressed against the seam of his tank top stretched across his chest. 

She waited for his next move — an elbow to the face, a harsh shove back, or a twisting and incapacitating hold — but it never came. Instead, she watched the fight drain from his muscles and wondered if she appeared the same way. 

His eyes narrowed, his hand coming to her neck as a thumb brushed across her cheek and she found herself fisting his shirt in her fingers to rise up on her toes. 

Warm lips melted into hers, drops of sweat falling into their kiss, and the salty taste added to the heat pooling inside her gut. He palmed her lower back, fitting her against him and she felt that familiar tension creep between them as she opened for him. His tongue slipped inside her, finding hers and coaxing them together before retreating. She followed his lead, wrapping her free hand around his bicep as she kissed him back, her head spinning with the intimacy. 

When he grabbed at her thigh, she realized she’d raised it around him and a blush lit across her face, but she couldn’t pull away -- not when he was holding her so tight, his tongue so hot and eager. Bakugou was eager for _her_. Her hands found his neck, pulling him down to her and the hand at her back dropped, grazing down her backside to pick her up by the single leg she stood on beneath. 

Once she latched her ankles behind his waist, he yanked himself away. The end of their kiss was punctuated by a resounding, wet smack and they watched each other with heaving breaths and racing hearts. 

“I--”

“We--”

Ochako cleared her throat, fiddling with her fingers behind his neck. “You first.”

His eyes scanned her face, a twitch flashing over his lip. 

“Fuckin’,” he grumbled, looking away. “I don’t-- I just…”

He fell into silence, his chin dipping. 

“I can go first?” she offered to which he grunted and she wasn’t sure his flush was from her kiss or the heat. She swallowed, daring herself to relax and drifted her head down to his shoulder to rest against him. “I, um, well… I’ve never done this before.”

He tensed, his fingers digging into her thighs before he loosened them again. 

“And, um, I don’t know if we should talk about it before? Or? I don’t know…” she rambled, happy to be looking at his jawline instead of whatever his eyes might be showing. “It’s like, special, right?”

A low, awkward silence stretched between them that she hadn’t felt in months and something cold slid down her throat. 

That had been too much. She’d said too much. How could she take it back? How could she explain herself better? That might not have even been close to what he was going to say and here she was with her mind in the gutter… but how could he _not_ be thinking about it? Ever since they’d first kissed each one felt like it lingered, drawing her further and further into him until she couldn’t wait to fall into bed with him every night.

How could his thoughts _not_ go there?

Finally, he sighed. His forehead dropped to her shoulder, curling them into each other. 

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t,” he said, tilting his face toward her, flashing red eyes at her before he shut them solemnly. “I haven’t either.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you…” she stopped the sentence before it could burst out of her mouth, because what was she _thinking?_ Was she really about to just come out and _ask_ him if he wanted to--

“Yeah,” he breathed, so softly she wasn’t sure she’d actually heard him say it. 

She watched him turn to hide his closed eyes in her collar -- out of her line of sight -- and for the first time she wondered if maybe he was nervous about it too. Had Bakugou been worried about this thing growing between them lately as well? 

He was never anything less than completely confident, even with his curiosities, though so far she’d only witnessed those in training. For some reason the carabiner came to her mind -- the look on his face when he’d said being on top of a mountain made him feel free. Her fingers slipped into the hair at the nape of his neck and he flinched, before relaxing into her touch. 

Maybe there was a lot of pressure that came with his level of confidence -- his level of pride. 

And maybe she could be someone who could make him feel free like the top of a mountain. 

Suddenly, nothing sounded better. 

“We’ll figure it out,” she said gently, letting her nails scratch lightly against his scalp. “We have time.”

He lifted his head slowly, finding her eyes. 

And then he kissed her again, firmly and surely -- a true Bakugou kiss. 

When he pulled away, she was smiling. 

“Wanna get back to our spar?”

“Tch,” he said, squeezing her thighs before letting them go. “You’re on, Cheeks.”

Ochako uncrossed her ankles and dropped back to the white tile of the lookout. 

“Oh no,” she said. “This one’s mine.”

-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Siiiiiiigh!!!!
> 
> Surprise, I'm self conscious about this chapter. (also I def didn't edit the last scene whatsoever OOPS, I was too excited to post this at the same time as Cat was posting her art LOLOLOL sorry about that!!)
> 
> However........things are building.
> 
> Teehee
> 
> Thank you to everyone for supporting this fic! The comments are just so overwhelming and motivating and I'm so so so so grateful! Please find me on Twitter! @jarynw02 !!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako has no idea why she said that...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please please PLEASE listen to the playlist for this chapter: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/56LXVKFMvgQFFIg3UFRsxX?si=yJZB732ISa-V8C5X-FyPog)
> 
> Warning: I did not beta this or reread it upon completion. Oops.

Iida Tenya gasped awake. 

“What a dream,” he mumbled, a hand reaching out for his nightstand on a reflex. 

He crumpled over his lap, rubbing his eyes with two fingers before setting his glasses atop his nose. Sighing, he removed his phone from its docking station to check the time. 

“A little after five.” He returned it to hold its charge, his head shaking idly in the wake of his ill-fated nightmare. Crossing his legs, he stared at the empty back of his door. “Surely not.”

Chuckling to himself, he resigned to starting his day.

And his day was definitely not going to begin with believing such unwholesome things. 

“Of course not,” he assured himself as he drew his legs out to stand, padding over to turn on the lights. “They’re two responsible future heroes.”

Collecting his shower caddy, after neatly straightening the sideways shampoo bottle, he huffed another chuckle. 

“Uraraka and Bakugou are fine,” he muttered to himself, remembering Sero’s rant in the common room before bed that must have triggered the dream. “They are respectable people. They are focused -- determined.”

He turned the handle of his dorm room door, bright light spilling over him. 

“They’re following the rules, training and definitely not murdering each other,” he said to the hallway with a nod. “Right.”

Shutting his door behind him, he smiled to himself.

“After all, they’re model students.”

  
  


-X-

  
  


**Day 220**

Ochako dismantled her crossed ankles from around Bakugou’s waist, the chill of hyperspeed flight biting against her skin. She bent her knees, tucking her legs tight at his hips as she held on. 

“Ready?” he called out over another bout of explosions. They twisted, curving around the blanket left in a wad on the void floor. 

“Yeah!” she shouted back, loosening her grip around his neck just enough to keep her attached to him. 

Then his arms raised, shoulders pressing against her forearms as she prepared for the shock. 

And then she let go. 

A sputter of an explosion sounded behind her, meant to hinder his trajectory without altering hers as she was fired from his back like a missile. She steepled her fingers as she dove, distantly registering the sound of his following blasts to propel him toward another approach on the target. 

Muttering their count beneath her breath, she connected her fingerpads and both of their gravities were restored -- right as she rolled into their faux villain, pointedly splaying out her palm on the blanket before closing her fist to dart away at a lowered gravity. Bakugou was there in an instant, nabbing the weightless cloth and tossing it straight above him. 

He raised an arm.

“Stop!” Ochako screamed, her voice cracking. “Don’t blow up my blanket!”

His shoulders fell and he turned to where she was waiting at their declared ‘safe distance’ away near the tile. “You don’t even use it!”

“But what about when it’s cold?!”

“You literally called me a space heater this morning!”

She frowned. “I don’t care! Don’t be wasteful!”

“It’s a blanket!”

She responded with a pout and release, but he was already waiting with an open palm to catch the blanket as it tumbled back down to him. He snatched it out of the air, tucking it into his crossed arms as they glared at each other. 

Relenting, Ochako yielded first. She looked away with a sigh. 

“Do you want to try one more time?”

“Tch,” he scoffed half-heartedly and she refocused on him. “No, I think we’ve got it enough for today.”

They’d been going to bed earlier and earlier over the course of the last two weeks and she’d rather fall into the void than point it out to him. Something warmed in her chest at the thought of realizing he wanted that extra time with her too. 

As if they didn’t see each other enough. 

And yet, she found herself never growing tired of him.

He was strict and sometimes harsh. He glared at her every time she let her tornado of clothes seep over to his side of the room and he never let her go to bed without showering, but he also had started letting those things slide if she ever pressed him. 

He didn’t talk about his feelings. 

It had bothered her a time or two when creeping wonderings slipped into her mind, but then he’d squeeze her arm to summon her closer or brush his fingers across any exposed skin she’d allowed and she was reminded that maybe some people just didn’t communicate the same ways that other’s did. There was never a night spent entangled with Bakugou Katsuki that she doubted whether he wanted to be there with her.

“Dinner?” she asked.

“Shower,” he answered, stepping up onto the ledge before her. He wrapped a hand around her waist, leaning down to press their foreheads together.

His touches had been growing more bold lately. The more time they stole from their training morning and night, the more they spent it with roaming hands and hungry kisses. She soared at the affections and he seemed to need the contact in ways beyond her understanding which led to moments like these.

All in all, her heart was going to explode. 

Which is what she’d say to explain herself after what seemed to jump out of her mouth without any sort of shame.

“Together?”

He stiffened, red eyes popping open to stare at her from much too close. 

“Agh,” he grunted, “Och-- Cheeks, fuck. What? Are you serious?”

“Um...” She clenched her teeth, fighting the roar of a blush rising across her face. “You can call me Ochako… if you want.”

His brow tensed as he studied her, his gaze darting between her eyes, her lips, her cheeks.

“And,” she said, slowly, “uh, yeah. I’m serious.”

“You-- I…” he stuttered, looking away to the void and back again. “Are you sure?”

Heart thundering in her chest, she nodded. She reached out a hand to his tank top, stretched tight across his broad chest, and fisted the fabric to gently pull him close. 

He obeyed, closing what distance was left between them to meet her in a kiss. His lips were soft and warm and a burning lit in her chest as she breathed him in. Restlessly, she tugged on his shirt, desperate for him to be the first one to bare themselves. 

Her fingers were shaking.

But Bakugou caught her wrist and separated them. 

“Agh,” he grumbled, avoiding her eyes. “Come with me.”

She followed him to their bed and sat on its edge at his gesture. He stomped away into the pantry before returning with one of the smaller first aid boxes. Popping open the lid, he retrieved a strip of black fabric before crouching down in front of her. 

“What is that?” she asked as he took her hand. 

“Tape,” he said before he tore the strip into a much smaller piece with his teeth. “It’s waterproof.”

He singled out the finger next to her pinky before removing a paper side to the wrap, revealing its adhesive, and then he covered her fingerpad in one swift movement. Once the other hand was complete, he leaned back to look at his work. 

Ochako rubbed her thumbs against the wrap. 

She couldn’t look away.

Had he really considered this before?

“You still sure?”

Her head snapped up to him as he stood. 

“Yeah,” she said, lifting a hand to meet his where he was already starting to reach for her. She rose up beside him, trailing behind as he led them into the washroom and she was comforted by the extra walls around them. Even if she knew there was no one else around to see, this was something she wanted to feel was completely between the two of them.

Was she ready for this?

Bakugou stopped, turning to face her with an expression she hardly recognized. His eyes were wide, the angry lines above his brows completely vanished. He wiped his hands down the hips of his sweatpants before touching down on her waist with gentle fingers. 

She stepped toward him, her breathing ragged. Placing all five fingers on his chest without fear of her quirk, she rose to her tiptoes. He bent, meeting her lips with his own and she was struck with just how comfortable she’d become around him. 

In the beginning, she’d thought his presence inspired her to be her very best, but now she was starting to wonder if he simply made her feel like herself. There was no pressure to achieve beyond what she was capable of, no shame in falling and getting back up again. 

Only the freedom to risk, to try.

She remembered telling him that they would figure out what this was between them and now here they were, trying to understand together. 

His lips tightened and she realized he was mirroring her own grin she’d let slip into their kiss. 

“Ready?” he whispered, his voice low and husky as he said the same word he’d used a million times in all their quirk training together and an ease spread through her chest despite the electric nerves that danced through her limbs. 

She answered with the curling of her fingers beneath the hem of his shirt. 

He let her draw the fabric up slowly, her touch grazing over the skin of his ribs before he stepped in to pull it the rest of the way over his head. Tossing it aside, he moved to her own tank top, carefully tugging it up from the sides and she lifted her arms above her, relishing in the soft chill raising hairs all across her skin. Her chest rose and fell in an erratic rhythm as he rid her of her top, throwing it away to join his on the floor. 

They kissed again. Something magnetic and thick in the air punctuated with the sounds of their clipped, heavy breaths led them into it and they fell together in rolling lips. 

Her hands found the waistband of his joggers and she tentatively snapped the fabric against him in a soundless request. He traced her arms with gentle fingers to the hanging ties of his pants before dragging them down over his hips until they tumbled to the floor. 

She could  _ feel  _ the atmosphere between them shift -- feel the heat both tangible and omnipotent radiating between them. 

Mimicking him quickly, she peeled off her tight, spandex shorts while he steadied her. He held her above the waist, curling all ten fingers across her bare skin before brushing at the band of her bra, wrapped tight across her chest. She swallowed, her eyes wandering over the planes of his chest exposed before her -- the way his skin seemed so tight across the slopes of muscles at his middle, the way his shoulders capped over broad biceps and the veins of his forearms stood pronounced at the simple touch around her body. 

Then she looked up. 

He was watching her study him, his eyes wide and serious. 

A finger slipped beneath her bra and she moved her hands to his arms, nibbling at her lip before stretching upward in consent. 

His touch was warm as it tugged away the sports bra, dragging it over the swell of her breasts until they fell free and he threw the confining fabric aside. Hands latched back to her side as they were before and she couldn’t help but look for his reaction, ignoring her rising blush. His eyes darted between her curious gaze and her chest until he dared to thumb at the edges of plump skin. 

Biting her lip more fully, she reached up for his neck with one hand before letting the other smooth against his. She pushed his touch forward, cupping herself up with his palm and a quick breath hissed from his mouth before she pulled him down to her. Their lips met and she swam in the taste of him as she relinquished his hand to comb her fingers through the hair at his nape. He moved, both of his hands taking her in completely, squeezing her in a deep, needy way and she felt a quiet rumble start in her throat. 

She let her hands trail down his collar, whispering against the rising muscles of his chest to sketch the lines of his stomach and she wondered just how much of that strength had come from their time together in the chamber. When the fabric of his boxer briefs touched along her path, she hesitated and drew back from his consuming kiss. 

This was it.

This was… It was a big deal. 

“Ah, um,” she heard her quiet, hoarse voice break into the room. “Should we… start the water?”

One hand fell away from her chest as the other skimmed a finger over the tight bud of her nipple and her lips popped open, sucking in a breath. He notched a knuckle beneath her chin, bringing her eyes back to him. 

“I’m good if you are, Cheeks.”

She would have kissed him again if he hadn’t beat her to it, planting a quick peck before turning to start the shower. Water from the mystical pipes dripped out slowly at first before a steady stream burst forth and the cords of his back moved along with his turn of the dial. She couldn’t look away from the living muscles hidden away between his shoulder blades, down his spine -- not until he was facing her again with low-lidded eyes, scanning her as if for injuries. 

A pinched smile curved her lips as she looked up at him, ever aware of each part of himself he was baring to her and what was still tucked away.

“I’m good,” she said softly. 

An echo of a smirk touched his cheek and he nodded, his gaze mapping out every piece of her exposed skin. 

He extended a hand and she took it. 

Drawing her into his space, he wrapped his arms around her, their naked chests pressing together in a rare hug and she released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. His head fell atop hers and she closed her eyes with a sigh to rest her cheek against him. 

“Will things still be normal in the morning?” she whispered over the roaring water. 

He huffed an abrupt laugh and it shook her.

“As if you’re getting out of training tomorrow.”

She rolled her forehead onto him, grinning before planting a chaste kiss beneath his heart.

With a steady inhale, she dropped her hands to her underwear and slipped them down her legs -- refusing to hesitate and lose this fragile thing reverberating between them. His arms made room for her, his face still bent down toward her to watch. A prickling energy shook through her fingers as she moved them to his briefs, turning up her eyes to him for permission. He let out a sharp exhale and his hands fisted at her back. 

He nodded.

She pulled down his waistband, inching along until she needed to pull away from his skin to free him. Her stare fell as she freed him, lips parting slowly as she witnessed him for the first time.

A pause thickened in the air before she’d even realized it and she snapped to undress him completely. 

They stared at each other in silence for a breath and then two, before she circled her arms around his waist and together, they tightened into a hug once more. She felt the heat of him low against her middle, something twitching inside her and warming at the contact. 

Raising her chin, she watched as he swept aside her too-long bangs with a curl of his lip in a mock impatience that didn’t quite meet his eyes. 

“Are we doing this, or what?” he asked too quietly for his growl to shine through. 

She wanted to laugh at him -- despite all of this.

Despite the terrified self consciousness buried in a tight, hyper aware ball in the pit of her stomach they were still… them. 

Still the quirk duo fervently practicing countless routines and maneuvers in flight, still the perpetual bickerers over clutter and cleanliness, still the competitive spirits who could turn any opportunity into a contest. 

He was still the boy who’d stared into the void before boldly stepping into the unknown and she was still the girl who tested her limits to rescue him in the middle of a cold night. 

He was still Bakugou Katsuki. 

And she was still…

She was Uraraka Ochako. 

So despite their states, despite their nakedness - their vulnerability of being so exposed to one another, she let a smile stretch across her cheeks. 

And then she stuck her tongue out at him and bolted for the curtain, throwing it back toward him to slide underneath the warm spray of water. Her laugh echoed off the walls and he pursued her, snatching the thick almost plastic fabric to toss to the side to join her, a genuine smile teasing on his face. 

She reached for him and he stepped closer, but as he approached, she moved back further into the stream of water until she passed through. Still, he followed her extended arm until his hair was wet, weighing heavy until it fell against his skin. Her back pressed against the cool tile, he leaned over her placing a hand above her head. 

She’d never felt so small -- or so alive. 

He kissed her, drops of water falling down his face in tiny rivers to pool at their lips and they lapped them up together. Hands found her waist, her breasts, and smoothed down her wet skin to cup against her ass and she perked away from the wall and into him -- their most sensitive places igniting in quiet sparks as they touched. 

Feeling her way over his chest, she raked greedy nails softly over the taut flesh of his middle. 

She wanted to touch him. 

Their lips rolled into each other, parting for tongues desperate for more -- more attention, more affection, more places to find the closeness that hammered through their hearts. 

The bones of his hips were sided with cut muscle and she rubbed against the wet skin, slipping her fingers between them. He gave her the space she needed to lay one finger on the thinnest skin stretched tight around him. She followed it with another, slowly curling one hand and then two around the full length and a noise slipped into their kiss, though she wasn’t sure whether it was hers or his. 

She pet him, learning the new territory with too much fire in her deepest parts to care much for shame anymore. His lips pressed into her with force, dancing something harsh as she kept up with him before giving him a light squeeze. 

A groan rolled through his chest.

She thought she might faint. 

With one hand, she moved on him, both questioning everything - her speed, her pressure - and yet feeling as though none of the details mattered. She reached up with the other, memorizing the path up to his shoulder and then his neck before sweeping her fingers into his wet hair and holding on. 

He matched her with a hand at her chest and another on one cheek of her ass, grabbing her with an intensity that matched the explosions of those palms. A war between pulling her closer and maintaining her room for stroking him sent her back and forth on wobbly knees and when she lost a bit of balance, she righted herself with a heavy squeeze. 

Teeth clamped onto her bottom lip for just a breath and then she was lifted, pressed against the washroom wall, her hand trapped around him and smashed between them. He kissed her again and though she was far from the water now, she was drowning. An instinct wiggled her hips and he groaned against her tongue. 

She burst away from him and their labored breathing was loud even beside the shower stream. 

“We should--”

“Yeah, we should--”

“Do you wanna--”

“Yeah, let’s um--”

She clenched her teeth, her eyes wandering over the flushed planes of his face, marvelling at his wide, open stare and the whispers of emotion in his smooth brow and parted lips. 

“Can we go get, um?”

“Yeah,” he answered, rushed and low before he kissed her once more and when he pulled away, he scoffed. “I’m still gonna fucking kill them.”

She grinned as he returned her feet to the floor, feeling a foggy heat in her cheeks. 

“I know.”

He kept her close, even as he dragged her out of the shower and it was so nice she didn’t bother to complain as he toweled her off, taking his time over very particular areas before drying himself a bit too. After wiping his hands clean, he tugged her against him fully, their lips drawn to each other without effort.

She told herself not to run to the bed, but she was nearly bouncing at his side and she grabbed his bicep after a few steps. He swung her in front of him, bending to snatch her up by the ass and smirking at the  _ eep  _ that slipped from her lips. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him, refusing to pull away even as he moved them forward, his fingers kneading into her thick, soft ‘roundness’. 

He dipped and she fell back against the bed. But he was still there, his chest pressed against hers as his touch crawled closer and closer to the very place on her body that had been silently begging for his attention. His kiss drifted away, peppering along her jaw until his tongue ran warm and wet along her throat. 

She bowed, her head tipping back as his mouth moved along with the slow draw of his fingers until he found her center waiting for him. A fingertip slipped over her, barely dipping to trace a new kind of wetness across the inside of her thigh and a squeak choked in her throat. His lips traced down her collar, teeth dragging out gently as he reached the swell of her breast. He teased her with his finger, her focus split between his tongue and her need. 

And then he covered her peaked nipple and sucked. 

A pitiful sound escaped her and she wriggled, only for him to take that as his opportunity. 

He slid into her, slowly at first, and then all together. 

She grabbed his arms in an instant, a pained expression taking over her features and she knew it was only because she wanted  _ more _ . 

“Katsuki,” she pleaded and he froze, pulling away from her chest to look up at her from beneath his lashes. “Please.”

He paused for a second. Then his finger moved inside of her and she clenched around him.

“Fuck!” She slapped at his shoulder, too fast, too eager. “C’mon.”

He smirked as he pulled away and she wished she could feel anything beside the buzzing against her insides, swirling together in a blur of sensation.

She would have stuck her tongue out at him again. 

Shuffling sounded in the corner and then he returned, tearing away at the foil square so much like he’d done to bandage her fingers so she would be able to experience this with him fully. He rolled on the condom awkwardly and she was unable to look away until he was crawling on top of her. She opened her legs for him naturally, her heels finding a resting point at the low slope of his back. 

He scooped her up with an arm and moved them further up the bed until her head was on the same pillow they shared every night. 

She watched him watch her, entranced. 

His brows creased. 

“Are you still sure?”

Raising a hand, she brushed her fingers across the harsh line of his cheek. 

Then she smiled. 

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m sure.”

-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...but she's not sorry.
> 
> Shout outs to @spazzysquirrel & @slightlyasian97 on Twitter for their Iida brainstorming!! 
> 
> Sorry for making you wait, Amy!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako and Katsuki count the days (and condoms) left in the chamber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's playlist: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1UNWxjnYVg0aPHEFwB5noS?si=_yfNjT-KSoit0FBjfqilzg)
> 
> & there is new fanart by the lovely @antelithm on Twitter!!!! You can see it & support the artist... [Here](https://twitter.com/antelithm/status/1266668624674033666?s=20)
> 
> This is the longest chapter yet coming in at 6627 words, *sigh*
> 
> I can't wait to talk about our favorite parts in the comments!

Shinsou Hitoshi was not a morning person.

He blamed the heart-pounding anxiety that had yet to lessen since he’d received the news of making it into the hero course for why he ever agreed to this. Faced with Midoriya Izuku and Todoroki Shouto asking him to join them for training, how was he supposed to say no?

Even if it was 5:30 in the morning.

He must hate himself. 

“Where is he?” he asked, his voice nearly slurring as he dropped down each front step of the dorms painfully slowly. 

Todoroki turned to him in the dim light of the early morning.

“You didn’t see him?”

“No.” Hitoshi shook his head, pressing his eyes into a hard blink to try and force them open wider. “Was I supposed to?”

Todoroki stared at him for a moment. “He was in the kitchen you just walked past.”

Oh.

“Uh,” Hitoshi stammered. “I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”

Todoroki looked away, lifting his chin to the stars. 

“He’s helping Satou this morning,” he said. “But he’ll try to meet up with us after the run.”

Hitohi sighed. 

So Midoriya could bail and it was fine. Why did he feel like it would be the end of the world to reject either of his few friends?

Oh, right. Because he only had a few friends.

He followed Todoroki out of the perimeter of their dorms until he stopped to stretch. They hadn’t really discussed just what this training was going to consist of, but Hitoshi was sure he’d probably be injured by the time it was over. 

He sighed again as he bent to touch his toes. 

The jog was quick, the pace faster than the one he’d kept up according to Aizawa-Sensei’s schedule, but he was at least grateful that he’d followed that to the tee. Otherwise, there’s no way he’d be able to keep with the stoic Todoroki. 

They weren’t exactly friends, but Todoroki seemed like a difficult person to make friends with at first. 

Still, the silence wasn’t too awkward as they followed the twisting sidewalks all over campus. It was comforting, even. There was something peaceful about knowing that there were other people who didn’t mind the quiet.

An hour later, when he was sure that his legs were going to collapse out from under him, they finally stepped back through the open brick gateway of the dorms once more. 

“Guess Midoriya couldn’t make it,” Hitoshi heard himself saying, feeling a little strange about parting ways inside without acknowledging each other. He’d barely started to make these friends, he wasn’t about to piss them off on day three. 

Todoroki slid his eyes toward the doors. 

“I guess not.”

Hitoshi didn’t know what to say to that, nor what to think of the lost look in the other boy’s eyes, so he kept his mouth shut. They rode the elevator together before splitting up and after deciding to take an early shower, he attempted to touch his homework with little luck.

The next time he stepped outside the Heights Alliance doors, the sun was shining overhead. He tightened the strap of his backpack just as footsteps sounded behind him. Quick feet zoomed by, slowing to curve ahead of him.

“Shinsou!” 

Hitoshi tipped his head to the side a bit. “Midoriya.”

“Sorry about this morning,” the shorter boy said, raising a hand to the back of his neck and looking away. “I got a little caught up with Satou.”

“No problem,” he answered as he continued to walk.

Midoriya met his stride. “I hope it was still fun with Todoroki.”

Fun?

“It was fine.”

“Oh, good,” Midoriya said, his hands finding each other to fidget with his nails restlessly.

“Nervous about something?”

Green eyes looked up at him. 

“What? No, not really,” he said too quickly. “I mean, Uraraka comes back this afternoon and we kinda had a fight before she left. So, yeah, there’s that.”

Hitoshi kept his eyes forward, waiting for a few other passing students to leave their space. 

“I’ll bet it’s fine,” he said. “After all, for her it’s been a year. I’m sure she’s moved on.”

Midoriya turned forward, his brows bending. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

For some reason, he thought of Todoroki this morning, suddenly feeling like he should tell Midoriya the way his friend seemed to miss him. But if Hitoshi was getting his signals wrong, he’d hate to let himself get caught up in someone else’s problems. 

So instead, he remained silent the rest of the walk to class before desperately trying to keep up with the new level of hero course work. 

And then when lunch rolled around, he found himself seated at a table alone with Midoriya and Todoroki. 

“I’m so  _ tired _ ,” Midoriya said, punctuating the statement with a yawn. 

Todoroki’s eyes drifted over to his friend at his side. “You can catch up on sleep tonight.”

“I know,” Midoriya sighed and Hitoshi watched as a green mass of hair fell on his taller friend’s shoulder. “But there’s still the rest of today.”

Hitoshi narrowed his eyes at the two of them in the booth across the table.

“There’s no hero course,” Todoroki answered, stirring the noodles in his bowl. 

“Yeah,” Midoriya answered, poking at his sandwich. “You’re right. That’s good.”

“And Uraraka comes back today.”

Hitoshi didn’t miss the tightening of both their eyes. 

What the fuck was going on with these two?

“Yeah,” Midoriya said, sitting up straight.

Todoroki adjusted in his seat.

“Are we still on for training tonight though?” Midoriya asked, turning to look up at Todoroki as he slurped his first bite of lunch. 

Todoroki nodded before they both turned to him.

“You wanna come, Shinsou?”

Hitoshi looked between the two of them -- the way Todoroki angled himself toward Midoriya and the way Midoriya sat down a little too close to Todoroki.

This wasn’t his business. 

Nope. Not his business at all.

So what if they were his only friends?

He didn’t need to be reading into every little thing so much.

Absolutely not.

Fuck.

“Yeah,” he answered finally. “Sure.”

This was going to be the longest day of his life.

  
  


-X-

**Day 226**

“Is this really necessary?”

Ochako grinned. “Not at all.”

Katsuki made a grumbling noise in the back of his throat, but his rhythm held, unfazed. His hands were larger than hers and smoother than she’d expected back before she’d ever felt them. Now, she snuck her fingers between his most nights and his guiding touches — on her back, her arms, her hips — were all familiar during their daily routines. 

A clap rang out between them and his scowl deepened. 

“How did you get me to agree to this?”

She dipped her head side to side to their beat. 

“It’s training!” 

“This is a game!” 

Quickening, she leaned forward with raised brows. “It’s a  _ training  _ game.”

“For children maybe,” he scoffed, his voice low. 

However, she didn’t miss the fact that he hadn’t faltered one single step of the clapping game she’d convinced him would help with their reflexes. They sat cross-legged in the middle of the void, forgoing their usual picnic blanket to keep this strictly business. 

“Seems like you have some prior knowledge, eh?” she teased, relishing in the soft flush that lit across his face. 

“All kids play games.” His shoulders dipped forward, sulking as he followed the unspoken instructions.

Left. Right. Together. Clap.

“I played this with my mom,” she told him, her eyes flitting over her movements to keep up with his harsh pace. “It was really fun. I didn’t have too many friends growing up, but we always found new games to play.”

“Oh yeah?” he said, his hair bobbing behind his headband. “Like what?”

Left. Right. Together. Clap.

She narrowed her eyes at him through their hands. 

“Are you trying to make me mess up?”

A smirk tugged on his lips. “Maybe I was just curious, Cheeks.”

“Sure,” she drawled. “I’m sure that you’re so excited to hear about all my favorite childhood games so we can play them all.”

His smirk grew into a smile and she couldn’t help but mirror it. 

He’d been doing that more lately -- smiling. 

Left. Right. Together. Clap.

She wasn’t sure if she’d ever get used to it.

“And what if I am?” he countered. 

She held her concentration steady, the force of their claps building into something that was quickly losing the title of being a ‘game’. 

“Then you’d better not make any promises you can’t keep.”

Left. Right. Together. Clap. 

“Never.”

-X-

**Day 234**

Their panting filled the thick, moistened air between them. Ochako watched beneath heavy lidded eyes as Katsuki rose up away from her bare chest before he slid out of her and a last burst of pleasure trickled out in waves beneath her skin.

She waited for him on sweaty sheets to go tie off the condom and toss it in the washroom, but he didn’t come back right away. Rolling her head, she peered down the length of her body, past her still-perked nipples to see him bent behind the shower curtain through the doorway. Her brows fell when she heard the water start and she pulled up on her elbows. 

He padded back to her completely naked.

“Are you taking a shower?” she asked somewhat sheepishly. 

“Nope.” He leaned over the bed with an arm down on the mattress, reaching for her. “ _ We  _ are.”

She frowned, throwing herself into the nearest pillow.

“You can’t make me get up,” she whined into the wilted fluff.

There was silence and then a hand traced over her shoulder. 

“Ochako.”

She froze.

The muscles in her face slackened and she abandoned her pillow to look up at him. His features were soft and open, if not a little drawn over his brows.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, afraid of the answer.

He searched her eyes, tracing a line down her side and the slope of her hips. 

“There’s blood.”

Her heart seemed to pause, a slow blush rising hot up her neck.

Pricks of tears bloomed behind her cheeks without warning, her throat suddenly feeling so thick. She looked away from him, trying not to blink. 

“Oh,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Okay.”

And then two arms scooped her up. 

Katsuki carried her into the washroom pressed against his chest, only setting her down in the warm stream of the shower. He joined beside her, immediately grabbing the soap to make gentle work over her skin. 

She hadn’t realized she was crying until he spoke, his voice stern. 

“ _ Hey _ .”

Her eyes snapped up to his.

“Don’t be stupid,” he said, gruffly wiping away her tears despite the water cascading over her head sticking her damp hair to the skin of her shoulders in wild trails. When she didn’t answer he added, “Okay?”

She watched him, and although it was painful to admit, she was searching for any sign of disgust. 

But she found none. 

Just careful red eyes boring into hers. 

So she nodded, letting herself relax into his soapy touch making its way over her every curve. 

And when he was done, she reached up on her tiptoes until his lips met hers -- clean and wet and familiar.

-X-

**Day 249**

Ochako refused to blink as a drop of sweat fell from the tip of her nose to the floor of the void. The white was all-encompassing — an emptiness that stretched in every direction apart from their small temple home. Even after all this time, it was easy to believe that she would fall straight through into nothingness, drifting off into a blur of time and space for the rest of her life. 

She kept her breathing slow and tightened her core, the tips of her toes wobbling in the air directly above her. A grunt sounded behind her and she dropped her head to look between her arms that held her inverted form. 

Katsuki’s nose was a breath from the void floor. His hair danced along the ground, the muscles of his back flexed into hard ribbons as he controlled his handstand with a shaking perfection before he pressed. He rose, his body a rigid line that she couldn’t help but marvel. 

She was  _ so  _ glad he wasn’t wearing his shirt.

Bearing her weight, she slowly relaxed, bending at the elbows to let herself slide down into a roll that left her sprawling on the floor. She rushed across the short distance through the void, laying back as quickly as she could just in time for an upside-down Katsuki to crane his neck to look down at her for his next rep. 

“What the fuck are you doing, Ochako?”

A too-big grin lit across her face. 

“I came for a kiss!”

-X-

**Day 261**

“Bakugou.”

He turned to her, features crumpled in a narrow stare. “Hah?” 

She let her eyes flicker over the smooth skin of his face, lingering on the patches of his hair where she could remember the light layer of frost. 

“Nothing,” she said. “Sorry.”

He dipped his chin, frowning. “Why did you call me that?”

She knew what he was talking about. She hadn’t called him by his family name in more than weeks. And yet she couldn’t seem to shake the dream from last night.

The memory. 

When she didn’t respond, he crossed the void to step into her space and make her look at him with a finger to her chin. 

“Oi,” he said. “What’s wrong with you?”

Lips sealed, a sharp breath of cold air sucked in through her nose. 

“When you--” she started, looking away for courage. “When you were unconscious… In the void. I, um, I was trying to wake you and I called your name over and over again.”

His knuckle dragged up from her jaw and he opened his warm, but dry, palm to her face.

“I dreamed about it last night,” she told him. “And it made me remember promising you that I’d let you ignore me every time I called your name for the rest of the year if you’d just answer me this one time.”

He studied her, the tips of his fingers slipping into her hair. 

“I guess I just wanted to see… I wanted to hear you answer me,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

She closed her eyes and a streak of a tear burned out. 

And then she felt a pressure atop her head before he tipped her back with his hand. Her eyes snapped open to find his waiting and her lips parted in a soft oh.

“Call me Katsuki,” he said, tracing her cheek, “and I’ll always answer. Okay?”

She blinked, her eyes somewhere far away. 

Then he pulled her close and she rested her forehead against his chest.

“Okay?” he asked again and she closed her eyes against the rumble.

“Okay.”

-X-

**Day 277**

Ochako’s tongue slid up his thin, tender skin. 

The taste of him was familiar now in the same way that his hands had become a natural company to her hips, her chest. She could feel the path of his fingers before they’d enter her, the pressure of his broad chest over hers as she enveloped him. 

She dragged her bottom lip against him until she could tilt to wrap her mouth around his head, licking around it with a new greed she’d only learned together, with him. 

A breathless, low sound rumbled through his chest and his legs tensed on her sides. Pressing down one finger-bandaged hand on his hip, she let the other join her lips in reveling in the heat of him as she moved. Her head bobbed slowly, eyes flickering up to him from beneath her lashes to see his chin tipped up and a pained expression on his face. 

She lapped him, laying her tongue flat against him as her fist rose and fell in rhythm despite the steady blush that she still couldn’t fight all the time. 

There was nothing in the world like seeing Bakugou Katsuki like this. 

“Ocha--” he gasped, his voice buried deep like gravel. “Can we?”

“Mm-mm,” she rejected him, letting her hum press against him in the back of her throat as she held her breath. 

A groan rolled out of him and she clenched. Her breath picked up, her chest heaving as thick pools of spit started to trail over the fingers curled around him, moving against him along with her mouth. She arched, imagining what it might be like to have him behind her while she was like this, bent over the bed on her hands and knees. 

This time when she glanced up at him, he was waiting. 

She didn’t look away, instead letting the tips of her teeth touch down on him, running gently over the veins as she rose. 

He was moving instantly. 

Nearly growling, he sat up, latching an arm around her waist to flip her. She landed on her back with a bounce and a small cry before he was on top of her, his lips finding hers without hesitation. 

He devoured her, fitting himself to her in a natural way and she felt herself relax as a heat fell onto her most sensitive place, wordlessly promising what was to come. 

But then she turned her cheek, their kiss smacking apart and she huffed for air. Heart pounding, she slipped her eyes up to his where they were narrowed beneath his knit brows, a flush stark across his face. 

“I, um,” she started, looking down at where the sharp angles of his collar met the waves of muscle that poured into his shoulders as he held himself above her. “I was thinking of trying something new.”

The lines around his eyes softened, but the furrow of his brows remained. 

“Like what?”

Ochako chewed on her bottom lip and his stare followed the movement, one of his hands rising up her hip to curl around her chest, pressing into the soft swell of her breast and she wriggled beneath him. 

“Um,” she said, finally summoning the courage to look up at him. “Like maybe how I was a minute ago?”

“Doggie style?”

She sputtered before she could stop herself. 

“Hey,” he barked, frowning, “that’s a thing.”

“I know,” she said, rolling under him in an attempt to calm the next bout of hysteria surging forward. “It’s just funny when you say it.”

“Why the fuck is it funny when I say it?”

“Because you’re… you.”

And then she couldn’t stop.

She held her stomach as she laughed, the sound echoing through the ticking emptiness of their chamber room. He rose up to sit on his knees, scowling at her when tears started to slip from the sides of her eyes. 

“You think you’re so fuckin’ funny, huh?”

Ochako paused to look at him before seeing how serious he was and letting out a wheeze. 

She rolled into another fit of laughter.

He scoffed down at her.

And then the corner of his lip curled up in a smirk before he pounced.

  
  


-X-

**Day 293**

“How long have your parents had their business?”

Ochako paused in her chewing, turning to Katsuki.

“Uh,” she stammered. “Since before I was born. I don’t know exactly how long. Why?”

He reclined in his chair, his food already demolished after an afternoon of apparently trying to blow up the void itself. Pointing a finger at her, he said, “You’re wearing the shirt.”

“Oh.” She looked down at the dark grey logo on the chest of her orange keepsake. They’d both slowly started to train without their tops over the last few months, though she always made an exception for this one. “You’re right.”

He huffed a mocking laugh.

She stuck her tongue out at him before taking another bite. A comfortable silence filled the space and her mind wandered back to her home in the country. 

What would her parents be doing right now?

“My mom has a garden,” she said all of a sudden.

He raised a brow, tilting back to lift the front legs of his chair from the floor.

“She’s not very good at it though,” she went on. “My dad and I used to take turns sneaking out to water and trim them.”

Idly, she chewed on her lip, wondering how the tomatoes were doing despite the fact that even if she weren’t in the chamber, she still wouldn’t be home.

“My mom’s into roller derby,” Katsuki said quietly, his features curling into a soft scowl. “It’s fucking ridiculous, but she makes my dad practice with her.”

Ochako smiled. “I bet that’s hilarious.”

“Ehh,” he half-groaned. “She’s always getting into random shit for a while before moving on to the next thing. Me or my dad always get dragged into it.”

She took her last bite and pushed her chair back from the table, lifting her legs into his lap. He readily wrapped his hands around her calves without looking, instead staring into one of the ticking clocks like it had offended him.

“That’s why I know how to drum,” he continued. “My mom wanted a family band. It was the dumbest shit ever.”

This time she openly laughed and he let out a dramatic, growling sigh.

“I wanted to learn to play the violin once,” she said when she’d calmed down. “A cousin of mine let me borrow their old one to try it. I was… awful,” she said, barely managing to get the last words out before falling back into a fit of giggles. 

He smirked at her. 

“I’m glad I never had to hear that,” he said, his voice light. “I’d like to keep my ears.”

“Hey!” she yelled, knocking him in the shoulder and watching him recoil from the blow much too far for him to be serious. “I tried my best, thank you very much!” 

“Stick to gardening, Cheeks.”

“Yeah, well, you stick to…” she trailed off and frowned. “Why are you good at basically everything?!” 

He shrugged, a smug smile curving across his face before he laced his fingers together behind his head. 

“Stop that,” she chided, tapping petulantly against his folded arm. “There’s gotta be something you’re terrible at.”

“Not really.”

“Do you sing?”

“Fuck no!” 

“Ha!”

“That doesn’t prove anything!”

“Then how about you sing for me?”

“You couldn’t handle it.”

“You know, suddenly I feel like dancing. How about you show me a thing or two?”

“Die.”

-X-

**Day 308**

Ochako stepped through the threshold of the time chamber house, wiping a forearm across her brow. The heat felt fresh and stifling every time it came back around like an unhinged season. She was at least grateful that these days it didn’t matter whether or not she wore a shirt for training. 

Katsuki liked it when she had less laundry accumulating all over their floor.

So knowing that she’d been taking extra precautions from furthering her eternal mess that surrounded her bed, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of him on his hands and knees. His head was hidden beneath his mattress as he crawled between their curtained spaces.

Had he lost something?

She stepped further into the room.

“Katsuki?”

A deep thud rolled through the room as he slammed his head on the frame of the bed before tumbling backward. He raised a hand to his crown, patting soothing circles over his hair as his eyes zeroed in on her. 

“Are you trying to  _ kill me? _ ” 

“Tch,” she pouted, crossing her arms as she came to stand over him. “Not my fault if you let your guard down.”

His upper lip twitched. “What do you want?”

“Nothing.” She crouched over her knees and reached out to him. His hand made way for hers as it slipped into his hair, brushing over the slowly forming knot. “I just wanted to know what you were looking for.”

His eyes darted away, but he seemed careful to keep his scalp within the reach of her petting fingers. 

“I was…”

Ochako lifted a brow. “I couldn’t hear that. What?”

Katsuki sighed, a bright crimson blush peppering across his cheeks. 

“I was seeing if I’d missed any condoms the day they fell out of the lamp.”

It was her turn to blush. 

“Oh,” she said, spotting the lava lamp that they had taken apart and left in the corner of his side of their room. “I guess that’s… important.”

He dragged his eyes to her. 

“Twelve left.”

-X-

**Day 322**

“How about now?” Katsuki’s voice carried through the void, a harsh echo in her ears. 

Ochako glared at him mid-step in her afternoon sprints, her braid whipping over her shoulder and touching down on damp skin. 

“I’m fine!”

He mumbled something that reached her in a muddy whisper and she stopped herself from cursing under her breath.

Sure, the strain of holding onto both of them with her quirk since breakfast was a constant tug at her gut, but she was trying to forget about it in her exercises. Him asking her if she was going to throw up every fifteen minutes was not helping. 

Even if it might have been a tiny bit cute.

Still, ever since she’d had the idea to use her volume control on them both throughout a spar, she couldn’t stop thinking about what would be possible if she could stretch her time limit before the nausea set in even longer. 

Or maybe get rid of it all together.

“Are you sure?!” he barked, raising both his hands to the top of his head as he worked on controlling his breathing from his last set of explosion reps. “Because if--”

“Katsuki!” she shrieked, her pitch shrill and cracking. 

He dropped his arms and she smoothed out the features of her face.

“I can do this,” she said softly. “Stop worrying.”

“Tch,” he bit, snapping his eyes from hers. “I know that.”

“Do you?” she asked, surprising herself with her growing voice as something quaked in her chest, her heart.

He looked at her again, his mouth twitching with his nose as he warred over his next words. Finally, he approached her, refusing to back down from the unyielding stare that now tied them together. 

Stopping a step away, he lifted a hand before letting it fall back to his side in a fist.

“I know you can do it,” he said, barely more than a growling whisper. “I’m aware of your abilities, but I think I’m allowed to think about your health at this point.”

Ochako bit her bottom lip to hold it in place. 

“At this point? What’s that supposed to mean?”

His eyes narrowed.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious!” she shouted, distantly aware that it would be better if she lowered her voice, but she couldn’t stop herself. “If you think I’m pushing too far-- that I can’t handle it, well, then--”

“Fuck!” He threw out his arms, spinning in a harried circle before turning back to her and setting both his hands on her shoulders. “That’s not what I’m fucking saying!” 

“Then what  _ are _ you saying?!”

“That I care!” He exhaled, running restless hands over his headband and into his hair. He lowered hs voice, “I fucking  _ care _ okay? I don’t want you to feel sick! That’s all!  _ Fuck! _ ” 

She blinked, her ire melting away and leaving something light and cool in its place. 

“Oh,” she mouthed.

“Yeah.  _ Oh _ .”

A pause filled the space between them as she let his words sink in.

Raising a hand to his chest, she waited for him to look at her again, realizing she could feel his heart hammering beneath her palm. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. 

His eyes flickered to her.

“I just didn’t understand.”

“Yeah, well.” He rotated his jaw before placing a hand over hers, pressing four of her fingers into his bare skin. “I would have been pissed too if you were checking on me every five seconds.”

A corner of her lips turned up in a smile and after a beat, his did the same. 

“It  _ was  _ pretty annoying,” she said with a lilt in her tone and he gave her a curious look. “I mean, who knew you were a mother hen?”

“Do you want to die?” 

She let a cheeky grin stretch across her face and lowered her voice.

“Why? You wanna make me go ‘ _ boom _ ’?”

His mouth popped open and the beginnings of a smile turned into a full on smirk, his eyes quickly filling with purpose. He reached for her hips and pulled her against him.

She craned her neck to look up at him when he spoke.

“Oh, I can make you go ‘ _ boom _ ’.”

  
  


-X-

**Day 330**

Her toes touched the tile in slow, light steps as Ochako crept away from her bed and through the darkness. The rough swishing sound caught her attention from where she’d been digging through her things for their mp3 player. 

And, well, she couldn’t resist. 

His bare back towered in front of her as she stalked into the washroom. With a quick bend, she jumped, latching her hands on each of his shoulders to vault herself onto him before wrapping her arms around his thick neck. 

Katsuki adjusted with her weight and continued to brush his teeth without falter.

Ochako frowned. 

“Shaw you comin’,” he garbled, eyeing her in the small mirror. 

She stuck her tongue out at his dim reflection. 

He leaned forward to spit, taking her with him, and she notched her heels together around his waist. After a quick rinse, he moved to towel off his chin while she hung at his back, her gaze drifting to the sink.

She pinched her lips and sighed, “I really should have brought another toothbrush.”

“Hah?” he said, turning his head to peer at her before following her line of sight. “Oh. You can just take one of mine.”

Leaning over his shoulder, she raised a brow. “You have extras?”

“Yeah,” he said. “A lot.”

“Hm.” She tapped two idle fingers on his collarbone. “How many is a lot?”

“A  _ lot _ , Cheeks.”

“Like, twelve?”

A silence followed that cracked her lips into a grin. 

“More?”

“Look,” he said, his voice a low growly thing she recognized when he was embarrassed. “Germs are the fucking enemy, okay?”

“Mhm,” she agreed with a hum.

He narrowed his eyes at her. 

She leaned back out of his range of vision so he couldn’t see her growing smile. 

“Will you get one for me?”

Gravel rumbled in his chest as his response.

“Please?”

“Tch,” he scoffed. “Whatever.”

He reached for her thighs before readjusting her on his back with a quick bursting hop. She rested her head on his, wild blonde hair tickling her nose as he moved into the bedroom area and found his duffel bag. He crouched and she darted forward with an arm, off-kiltering their balance. They were saved from toppling forward by his hand pressed to the floor for support and once they were steady he shot a glare at her.

Ochako looked away, the slightest pink rising to her cheeks. 

“I was gonna grab it,” she muttered.

“Then grab it.”

She turned back to where he was waiting with daring, wide eyes. 

He leaned forward with her this time, letting her paw through his things at his guide until she retrieved the treasured new toothbrush. 

She held it above them in a victorious fist. 

He mumbled something rough under his breath and stood. 

“Wait,” she said, pointing toward her neatly made and long unused bed. “I want to get a hair tie.”

“What do I look like to you, huh? A fucking taxi service?”

“Pleeeease.”

“Fuckin’,” he grumbled, color rising up his ears.

She buried her grin into his neck as he stomped over to her bag, crouching one more time.

“They’re in the side pocket.”

“So  _ now _ you want me to get it?”

She nuzzled him, planting a quick kiss on his jaw. 

“Will you grab two?”

He did. 

She brushed her teeth quickly once he’d set her down in the bathroom adamantly refusing to let her continue her piggy-back when toothpaste spit could fall on him and when she was done she joined him on their bed with a soft bounce. 

He watched her with knowing, low lidded eyes. 

“I have an idea--” she started.

“No.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet!” 

“I can tell by the look on your face that I won’t like it,” he answered, studying her fingers as they fidgeted with the two hair ties. 

“Just let me explain it first,” she said, shifting closer to him on crossed legs. “Then you can decide.”

He groaned. “Fine. What is it?”

“Let me play with your hair.”

His lips fell into a thin line.

“Never.”

“No!” she chided him, playfully slapping her knuckles on his arm. “It’ll be fun! I can braid it out of your face.”

“I can braid my own damn hair if I want it braided, Cheeks,” he said, reaching for her hand to brush across her fingerpads. “I said no.”

But she didn’t hear his last words.

“You can braid hair?” she asked, stealing back her hand to hold herself up on his knees so they could see eye to eye. 

He raised a brow.

“Yeah. It’s not that hard.”

She stared at him.

“Do my hair.”

“What?”

“Do my hair!” she nearly screamed, pushing down on his knees over and over. 

The corners of his lips twitched as he forced his brows to stay knit. 

She grinned at him. 

She’d won. 

“Fine! Fine. Just, stop all that already,” he said, shooing her arms off his legs.

But she was already jumping up from the bed, feeling him watch her as she skipped over to her old bed and returned. Settling down in front of him once more, she thrust out her hand. 

“Let’s listen to the last song too!” 

He looked from the music player up to her. 

“It’s almost dead?”

She nodded solemnly. 

“I think this will be the last song,” she said, turning the device in her hands to click it on without waiting for his approval. “Any requests?”

“Whatever you want,” he grunted, moving back to the head of the bed to recline with open legs. 

She understood, sliding over to sit between them, resting her bottom half against him and feeling a familiar growing heat at the contact. Peeking over her shoulder, she gave him a coy smile.

“Shut up,” he huffed as his hands drew up into her long hair flowing down her back. “Just pick your song already.”

Quickly, she shuffled through the small library before choosing his favorite. His fingers slowed in her hair before he brushed them through one more time and started to braid. When he was done, the song dying out with the device, she turned to him, lifting each leg one at a time to move to straddle him. He set his hands on her hips, her braid spilling down over her shoulder. 

And before she kissed him, anticipating the rest of their night, she stopped.

A breath from his lips, she whispered, “Thank you, Katsuki.”

-X-

**Day 345**

Warmth woke Ochako to the darkness and she blinked. 

Katsuki’s arms were still tight around her, her back pressed against his naked chest. Her bare legs spilled out beneath his shirt twining with his behind her and she wiggled into him.

Only to realize the warmth she was feeling wasn’t from the void. 

A wave of heat immediately rolled between her thighs at the feel of him hard against her ass. 

She turned her head, looking over at him in the dark only to find him sleeping easy, his breathing steady and even. Chewing on her lip for a beat and deciding she was definitely not falling back asleep anytime soon, she convinced herself to squirm. 

It was like the blood that had rushed into his arousal was calling out to her own. Her heart sped, building enough courage to intensify her wriggling against him. 

Just when her lips popped open after another rough grind, he stirred. A low groan rumbled through him, sinking into a hum as his arms tightened around her. She arched her back instinctively, building the pressure between them.

“Mmm,” he murmured, slipping a hand under her shirt and grabbing her chest in a firm squeeze as he set a warm kiss beneath her ear. 

“How many?” she asked, breathless.

His teeth tugged on her earlobe and her eyes fell shut at his whisper.

“Three.”

“Good.” She reached back with her hands, glad they always bandaged them before bed now, and tucked her fingers into his briefs. “I think we need to use one.”

“Oh yeah?” he said, his voice low and husky in her ear. 

She clenched her teeth before ridding him of his underwear and he followed her lead until they were pressed together once more, skin on skin. 

Tipping her chin to her shoulder, she met his gaze in the night, just a breath away.

“Fuck me, Katsuki?”

His pupils flared, eyes scanning over her shadowed face before a smirk pulled across his cheeks. Turning away, he dug through his bag on the floor before sliding back to her side with the small foil square.

“You can wake me up in the middle of the night anytime, you know?”

She latched her nails into his forearm, glaring at him across the pillow.

He bit back his grin.

“Ready, Cheeks?”

-X-

**Day 353**

Ochako closed her eyes, relishing the feel of her lashes against the skin of his neck. “What are you looking forward to most when we go back?”

“A haircut.”

She slapped his bare chest and swore he almost laughed. “No! Pick something better.”

He tightened the arm around her, running his knuckles along her exposed ribs. “Mmm,” he hummed. “Showing off.”

“Like that’s new,” she scoffed. “Next.”

“So hard to please,” he grumbled, shifting on his pillow to hide his lips in her hair. 

She smiled. “And yet you do it anyway.”

“True.” He said it with the earnest hope of being funny, she could tell, but his humor was no match to his pride shining through. 

“So what else?”

He leaned back, eyes staring at the ceiling but getting lost elsewhere — far away. 

“My dad’s cooking.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm,” he agreed, the sound rolling through his throat and she raised a hand to it, relishing in the feel of the soft skin behind his ear as she brushed along a finger pad. “He can make anything — even mochi.”

“Ooooh.”

“You’ll have to try it.”

She froze in her nuzzling before dragging a hand with a bandaged finger to his neck, drawing a featherlight trail down his chest to rest over his heart. 

“Oh yeah?”

“I guess I’m looking forward to that too.”

She was quiet for a moment, losing herself in the rhythm of his gentle touch trailing up and down her side. 

“Sometimes I think I don’t want to go back,” she whispered into his skin. “Sometimes I think it’s perfect in here.”

His agreeing grunt was small, hardly noticeable, and yet it still sent a flutter through her chest. 

“But hey,” she said, perking up to pop a quick kiss on his cheek before settling back against his shoulder. “Then we wouldn’t get to grow up and be heroes!”

His eyes tracked her, lowering his lids to stare down at her for too long in that way she’d started to notice him doing more and more.

She wondered what he was thinking of when he made that face. 

“Yeah,” he said, tightening her into his chest. “You’re right.”

Maybe one day she’d ask him.

-X-

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3
> 
> As always, thank you to everyone for all the love and support... it's truly overwhelming in the best way.
> 
> I appreciate every comment and kudos! Every bookmark and every twitter like and share. 
> 
> Just... thank you guys. 
> 
> @ me on twt: [Here](https://twitter.com/jarynw02)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako and Katsuki get ready to leave the time chamber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm *way* too emotional for a note - so, here you go:
> 
> The Playlist: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zi2I8wsn8MrBXk6B36QDY?si=48Re2N1DSzqAj_4BtaGWrA)

Hagakure Tooru liked her new seat.

First-year Tooru had been up front and shoved in a corner. 

_ Second-year  _ Tooru was smack in the middle of the entire class, and while she would have thought her peers would have grown used to her forgettable nature, the tea was  _ sweet _ . 

Tokoyami, Shouji, Midoriya, Sero, and Kaminari played DnD once a week. 

Kouda, Aoyama, and Satou were  _ really  _ into the weekly updates of one of Tooru’s personal favorite animes. Frankly, she joined in their debates over the cat spirit versus the rat spirit. 

Even if Mina wasn’t her best friend, her relationship with Kirishima was  _ hardly  _ a secret. Like, c’mon, bitch,  _ tip-toe  _ if you’re going to be out past curfew.

Sero was finally convinced to start his Latin dance lessons, courtesy of Mina’s unfailing ability to bend others to her will. 

Momo was going to start cutting Todoroki’s hair once a month and, honestly, Tooru would  _ die  _ for a friendship like theirs. 

Iida watched period romances with Shouji and Satou once over summer break.

Jirou couldn’t stop herself from peeking over Kaminari for  _ one class period _ and it was really freakin’ adorable. 

Tsu, apparently, fell asleep in the bathtub occasionally and both Momo and Mina are really worried about her.

And then there was Ojiro.

Sigh, Ojiro. 

But today things were all quiet in the classroom post-lunchtime. The tension was almost painful amidst the few bouts of electric anticipation. Too many eyes were drifting over to the clock, waiting. 

Uraraka and Bakugou left the time chamber today.

Only minutes away. 

Tooru sighed, raising an elbow to her desk as Cementoss settled his things at the podium up front. The jittery energy of the class seemed off their teacher’s radar, but nothing made it past Tooru. 

Just like when the time chamber duo returned, she would find a way to make them spill. 

She couldn’t wait to hear all about it.

  
  


-X-

**Day 363**

“Ready?”

Since the very first time Ochako had ridden on Katsuki’s back, she’d always been able to answer that word with a quick nod and tightened fingers on his shoulders.

This time, she found herself hesitating. 

Still, she squeezed him and gave a loud, “Let’s go!” 

They were poised above the void in a stable float. Each time the pads of her fingers fell upon him, she adjusted his gravity so slightly, just to stay on her toes. He didn’t seem to notice as he raised an arm and then braced it with the other. 

“Alright, fuckers,” he said under his breath. 

She tucked her face down behind his head and braced her ankles around his waist. 

The boom was nothing like the others she’d witnessed in all these months. 

It shattered something still about the air around them, instantly ringing in her ears with a sharp blurry sound. They were thrown back, tumbling through the sky and she held fast to him, remembering her role. Reaching her hands around his neck, she released them before slapping quick hands down on his chest and balling her fists to bring them both back to an easy hover. 

The explosion was still reverberating through her skull and she couldn’t tell whether the noise was real or in her head. 

Katsuki gripped her ankles, his face impassive as he stared ahead at the wake of his blast. 

Smoke drifted in the distance in foggy waves of dark clouds and she realized that’s where they’d been moments ago. When a silence settled around them, she leaned forward, resting her chin down on his shoulder. 

“That was definitely more than I remember it being at the Sports Festival.”

He didn’t answer at first.

Then, “Tch, it better be.”

He dipped his chin to her, raising his eyes and lifting a single brow. 

“I’m good,” she said with a small upturn of her lips. 

Vaguely, he nodded and looked back ahead. 

“How’d it feel on your end?”

Ochako adjusted on his back and he moved his hands up to her thighs. 

“Good,” she said. “It’s a little startling at first, but it felt pretty smooth after that.”

He paused for a beat and then nodded again, staring ahead.

She frowned and held back the urge to poke his tense jaw with her finger.

“Why do you seem disappointed?”

He let go of a slow sigh. 

“I wanted it to be bigger.”

Ochako snorted and covered her mouth with a palm. 

“Sorry,” she said through her hand before dropping it. “It’s just… I’m sure that could have leveled a few buildings.”

Katsuki only grumbled in response. 

“I mean,” she went on. “When you’re in the field you’ll have to be thinking about civilians, you know? Does it really need to be bigger?”

He whipped his face to her with narrowed eyes. 

“Why would I ever stop wanting it to be stronger?”

A slow grin started at the corner of her mouth. 

“This is why I picked you,” she said, tracing an idle finger along his collarbone. “Did you know that?”

“Hah?” he said. His features slackened, the trance left by his massive explosion finally seeming to be broken. 

“Because I knew that you would always make me want to be better. No matter how far I pushed myself you’d be there pushing harder… I wanted to feel that,  _ drive _ , I guess.”

He gave her a skeptical look. 

“Cheeks, you don’t need me for that,” he said casually, almost bored. “You’d be in here kicking ass with anyone.”

She stared at him for a moment before relaxing against him. He looked back out into the void and she moved her cheek against his, grinning against him. 

“You can be pretty sweet, you know.”

“Shaddup,” he groaned, squeezing her thighs too tight with some sort of phony malice. 

After reveling in their touches a little longer, she pulled away and straightened on her perch. 

“Do you want to go again?”

A heartbeat passed. 

Then another.

“Yeah.”

“So,” Ochako started cooly as she raised a leg up into her kitchen chair, “I was thinking…”

Katsuki’s eyes slipped away from his food. “Is this another one of your ideas?”

“You liked the last one!” 

“Yeah, fuckin’, right.”

“Whatever,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “This one is different.”

“Different how?”

“Well.” She stared down at the ration he’d given her and when she noticed it was slightly larger than his, she divided some of her share back to him. “I was thinking that maybe tomorrow we could… take the day off?”

Holding her breath, she raised her arms onto the table watched as he grumbled over his added food before taking a bite. He chewed and she drifted down to rest her chin.

“Stop staring at me like that.”

“I’m not staring at you,” she said, her head bobbing atop her arms with each word. 

He stopped eating and leveled her with his eyes. 

“Liar.”

“I just think it would be a good idea!” she perked up. “We only have two days and however many hours left!”

He frowned at her. 

“I never said no.”

Closing her finger’s around the edge of the tabletop, she leaned forward over her still bent leg. 

“Really?”

“Really, Cheeks,” he scoffed. “When do I say things I don’t mean?”

“Eeee!” she chirped, lunging out of her chair and into him. He rocked back, arms naturally catching her as he scolded her with a yell. She grinned up at him and he adjusted his hands to support her, moving her into his lap. “What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“What kind of fucking question is that?”

Her brows fell. 

“What do you mean?”

“You,” he said with a smirk. “The answer is always you.”

Her playful smile settled into something gentle and his coy grin softened. 

“Two left?”

“Two left.”

-X-

**Day 364**

It was cold again when Ochako woke. 

She was latched onto Katsuki the same way she was most mornings, though the chill had made him keep an arm secured around her back. Typically, at some point in the night, he would spread out across the mattress while Ochako smothered him as much as her smaller frame could. With one arm asleep, prickling with pins beneath him and the other squeezing over his middle, she nestled her cheek into his chest. 

He stirred, lifting the leg that Ochako’s was hooked around and a tired groan escaped him. His free hand tucked under the pit of her arm as he rose from the bed to free her. Tugging her on top of him, he settled back down, shifting to keep their blanket high, just beneath her chin. 

“Mmm,” she hummed, squirming into him. 

He didn’t respond and she popped open an eye to see him staring down at her. 

“What?”

“Didn’t say anything.”

She narrowed her eye.

“Exactly.”

He pressed a hand to her face, shoving it back down to his chest.

“Stooop,” she protested, wiggling her head until she was free. When she saw his teasing smirk at the corner of his lips she stuck her tongue out at him. 

His hands found her waist and he slid her up his body and across his already present erection to pull her into a grinning kiss she eagerly returned. Heat fluttered through her and she arched, fitting her knees on either side of his hips. A low sound rolled through her as she touched her center down on his tip, two layers of fabric between them. 

His tongue traced along her lips and she nearly sighed, bowing into him. Hands slipped under her shirt, moving directly to envelop her breasts, while his fingertips teased at her nipples and she gasped for a quick breath before sinking back into their kiss.

She rocked against him, a warm, sinister grin sneaking onto her face as she pulled away. Sitting up, she tossed her shirt aside before bending back to him with an eager mouth -- fully prepared to spend that second little foil square. 

“Favorite smell?”

“Roasted peppers.”

“That’s a food.”

“So?” Katsuki’s voice carried through the resounding presence of the void despite his proximity and even tone. “I can like the smell of a food.”

“No, you can’t.” Ochako’s bottom lip poked out. She rolled her head to his on the endlessly white floor and he met her upside-down eyes. “That’s cheating.”

“Oi, cheating is limiting what  _ type  _ of smells someone can like.”

They glared at each other.

“Fine,” she said before smiling offhandedly. “Well, my favorite smell is anything sugary.”

“I’m shocked,” he said, his voice flat. “ _ And  _ yours is a food too so you’re being a hypocrite.”

She moved to shove him lightly and he caught her wrist, smirking. He laced their fingers together in the air above them as she pouted.

“It’s your turn,” she said finally.

“This is boring.”

“Hey!” 

He squeezed her hand, slinking his eyes to hers as his knees pulled up to a bend somewhere behind her head. 

“Let’s race.”

She didn’t have to think to respond.

“Where to?”

“Hundred paces and back.”

“Starting on the floor?”

“You know it.”

“Deal,” she said, slipping her fingers out of his. 

He watched her, eyes alight -- eager and alive.

“Ready, Cheeks?”

“Always.”

She felt him before she heard him.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Looking up through the curtains of her hair, she met his skeptical eyes. He loomed over her where she sat crisscross atop their bed, his shirt long cast aside for the night. She turned the foil square in her fingers, touching all her fingerpads to it and feeling the easy control of  _ almost  _ complete gravity that kept it from floating away. 

“I don’t know,” she confessed. 

“Well stop,” he said, sinking down onto the mattress beside her. “It’s weird.”

She frowned. 

“Mean.”

“What? No,” he said quickly. “You look like you’re going to cry or something.”

A blush fired up her neck and she dropped the condom, snapping her eyes to him. 

“I am not going to  _ cry  _ over a condom.”

He chuckled. “Whatever you say, Cheeks.”

“I’m not!” 

“Uh huh,” he said as he slipped an arm around her waist. She closed a flat fist to null her gravity and he swiftly towed her onto his lap before she released. He reached out for the condom with a hand and held it in front of them. “Are you wanting to go again or something?” 

She shivered at his hot voice in her ear. 

“No,” she said. “I was just… thinking.”

“You’re thinking a lot lately.”

“I’m always thinking!” she protested with a huff. 

“Mhm,” he hummed, dropping his chin onto her shoulder. “What are you thinking about this time? I know it’s not my dick or you’d--”

“Katsu!” 

“Hmm?” he mumbled, his lips pressed to her neck and she squirmed away. 

“N-no!” she chirped, not settling until he backed off enough for her to rest against his chest in peace. She sucked in a quick breath, taking the square from him and he relinquished it without a fuss. “I guess I was just thinking about how we leave tomorrow and we won’t really have anything to remember this place by. I’m pretty sure the music player is Momo’s and you said the lamp was Kaminari’s…”

Katsuki muttered something vulgar under his breath at the mention. 

“And when we go back everyone will only think it’s been a day.”

“It has been a--”

“I know it’s been a day for them, but you know what I mean,” she said, interrupting him. He pulled his hands into her lap, his arms comfortably around her sides as he listened to her. “I think I was just wanting something to remind myself that this was real… Is that stupid?”

“Yeah,” he said bluntly. “Kinda is, Cheeks.”

Her head fell along with her expression as she spun the foil square once more. 

But then he squeezed her middle. 

“Keep it.”

“But--”

“No, keep it,” he said, his voice stern, but soft. “Even if you’ll have me to tell you it was real whenever you want.”

A breath of a laugh rushed out of her and she leaned into him. 

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.” He moved his palms to wipe them on their blanket before resting them on her thighs. “You can do whatever you want. I can’t stop you.”

Turning to tilt her chin up, she kissed the line of his jaw. 

“Thank you anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grunted. “Can you put it away though so I don’t have to look at it tonight?”

A grin split across her face before she crawled off of him to toss the condom into her bag from the bed. His hand slapped down on a single cheek of her ass and she whipped her head around.

He smirked at her, wide and wicked and completely unhindered. 

And her anger drained away just like that. 

She crawled back to him, taking up his lap with a familiar form as he held her by the waist. With one leg bent on either side of his hips, she dropped to kiss him, breathing in the smell of his clean hair, dry from his earlier shower. 

She touched the gentle skin of his neck, his fingers pressing into her sides as their lips moved with each other.

Heart pounding, twisting, she broke away. 

“Do you think it will still be like this?”

He stared at her, unyielding. 

“I don’t see why not.”

A burst of relief warmed the sharp thing that started to build when she’d found the last condom on their bed. She relaxed and his hands traced up and down her sides. 

“We should reflect.”

“Reflect? On what?”

Ochako latched her fingers together behind his neck, toying with the long blonde strands kept out of his face with the same headband she’d given him so long ago. 

“On the last year… and all the things to come.”

“Or we could not,” he said simply, his brows knit. 

“Or.” Leaning in, she pressed a kiss to the corner of his frown. “You could think of it as a meditation. You meditate, right?”

He didn’t answer immediately until he finally grumbled and said, “Fine.”

This time she was the one to hesitate and he gave her an unamused, but curious glance. 

“I think I’m scared,” she confessed too quickly. “Of leaving.”

He frowned.

“Why would you be scared?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking off over his shoulder. “So much has changed…”

He watched her as her voice faded away to somewhere distant and foggy. 

“And?”

“And, I guess,” she said, running her nails through his hair above his nape idly, “I’m nervous about… putting everything back together again.”

He dropped his hands down to the underside of her thighs, his frown deepening. 

“I mean, I know there’s nothing I can really do,” she went on, “but I’m still just… scared. You know?”

His features were impassive, fingers kneading into her skin.

“Not really.”

She slouched over his lap, pouting too close to his stoic face and he studied her quietly. She bobbed her head to the side, brows bent and low. 

“Isn’t there anything you’re afraid of? That you don’t really have control over and you just have to… face it?” she asked, searching his eyes almost desperate to know that he could relate to her most fragile parts -- that she wasn’t the only one in the world afraid of what was to come. 

He met her stare, red eyes piercing. 

And then they flickered and her heart stopped.

A thin glossy film filled his far off gaze and he blinked it away viciously.

Her hand moved to his face on an instinct, bringing him back to her. She brushed her thumb over the soft skin of his cheekbone and waited for him to recoil.

But he leaned into her touch and something foreign caught in her throat.

“I couldn’t hear you.”

She stared at him for a heartbeat. 

“What?”

“Yesterday,” he said, so quietly she was barely sure he was saying anything at all. “After the big blast -- I couldn’t hear you.”

She felt like she had the first time she stepped into the omnipotent buzzing presence of the void; spinning but still, full but empty. 

“You couldn’t hear me?”

He shook his head, his narrowed eyes on hers. 

A silence passed between them and her lips parted.

“Does that mean…”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice low and gruff. 

Her vision blurred. 

“Because of your--”

“Yeah, Cheeks.”

She added her other hand to his face and he closed his eyes, inhaling with a steady rise of his chest. 

“When did this start?” she asked him, softly. “Is it only when you use your quirk? Have you seen Recovery Girl about it? Do your parents--”

“Ochako,” he said, looking up at her. “It’s not a big fuckin’--”

“ _ Katsuki _ , if you finish that sentence I will throw you into the void,” she snapped, quiet and even. She didn’t break her stare even as her heart hammered in her chest. He returned it still, his features set in a stubborn grimace. “We’ll figure it out. Okay? When we get back you can talk to Recovery Girl and--”

A loud groan rolled out of his chest, rough and bitter. He dropped his head and her hands pulled away, resettling in his hair as he rested his forehead against her collar.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her.

She ran her fingers through his long hair and let her eyes bore into the wall behind them. The ticking of the clocks crept in as she played with his hair in silence. 

“Okay,” she said at last. “Then how about we talk about what we’re going to say to your friends about their little gifts?”

“Agh,” he growled. “That’s not any better!”

“They’re going to want to know.”

“Fuck them,” he spat, nestling his face further into her chest. 

She led them through a plan and conversation moved on to a study schedule and what they actually remembered about their academics before they finally talked their way into bedtime. They fell into their familiar tangle of limbs and Ochako listened to his breathing even out and his heartbeat steady beneath her cheek.

And not once did she stop thinking about those words.

_ I couldn’t hear you. _

-X-

**Day 365**

Ochako stared at the ethereal sand, glowing in wisps of a mysterious quirk that reminded her so much of magic. It swirled behind the glass, turning in fast and slow specs as time moved on. Every day had passed in the chamber much the same way: fast and slow.

An ache in her heart called her home to her friends, her parents, her classes.

To becoming a hero.

To her dream. 

And yet everything in her wanted to stay right here.

Safe and sound with Katsuki.

A slight smile touched the corners of her mouth at the thought. 

Nothing could have ever prepared her for this experience -- for the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Nothing could have prepared her to see Bakugou become Katsuki -- Katsu, when he was sweet. For the elements, for the relentless tests of her will and her body. For how  _ different  _ she felt. 

How strong she felt.

She had no regrets. 

“Oi!”

Swiping at her eyes, she turned to Katsuki waiting for her in the open doorway, a reluctant frown on his face and both their bags in his hands.

“Ready?”

She came to him, stealing her luggage from his fingers before looping her arms up around his neck. His touch settled down on her hips and she sighed.

But she picked up her chin and met his eye, a slow grin touching at her cheeks.

“Always.”

-X-

  
  
  



	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako and Katsuki step into the real world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *screams*
> 
> Here is the playlist for this chapter: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5cGITboFhM1tC6VCs1hx39?si=RrJV5QWdSxKnhUMKKm022Q)!
> 
> It's my favorite so far tbh lol. A Vibe ~ (and meant to be played in order but it doesn't matter TOO much)

-X-

Ochako had almost forgotten there was a door between the scattered clocks on the wall. The memory of stepping through it once before seemed so foreign - so far away. Then, she’d followed behind Katsuki, fueled by his pride and what she now knew to be his unshakable will. Then, she’d been envious of his hunger for success. 

Now, she stood at his side, close enough to touch. His hands were slipped into his pockets, hers clasped along the strap of her pink duffel bag thrown over her shoulder. 

The sands had emptied. 

Words had slipped away from them then and they migrated to the door.

And then they waited for something to happen. 

“Katsuki,” Ochako said eventually, her voice nothing more than a whisper. “What if they forgot about us?”

Katsuki frowned at her, low judgment in his eyes as he reached up a hand to wrap around the back of her neck, dragging a slow thumb across her nape. 

“Cheeks, you’ve said a lot of dumb shit, but this really takes the cake.”

“Hey!” Her mouth popped open and she knocked his arm away before breaking her sight of the door for the first time in what felt like an hour. “That’s so rude!”

“Maybe,” he said. “But what you said was still stupid.”

“It’s _not_ stupid,” she argued. “What if we’re stuck here!”

He turned a smirk on her and a blush rose to her cheeks. She blamed the bun he’d decided to stow his hair up in for the first time this morning. His fingers nipped at her waist through the black shirt she’d stolen from him a few days ago, specifically saving it to wear for strength today.

“You’re the one who said you wanted to stay forever.”

She crossed her arms in a pout.

“This isn’t what I meant.” 

A whirring hiss sounded in front of them and their attention snapped back to the door. It cracked, the smooth seam on the wall separating. 

And then it opened. 

The bright white of the tiled top floor of Kami-Po Industries spread in front of them. Ochako could remember how blinding it had felt from the elevator ride up and yet now it felt oddly pale. 

Lifeless. 

“Hello again.”

Dendi stepped into their view, her tiny stature compensated by her long, pale hair. It curved in braids against her scalp and funneled together down one shoulder all the way to her hip. A wide smile stretched across the green skin of her face. 

Ochako realized she was waiting for a response. 

But it caught in her throat as she realized these would be the first words she said to someone other than Katsuki in the last year. 

“Where’s Sensei?” 

She looked up to Katsuki beside her as he filled the blank spaces in her mind, feeling suddenly grateful for him — though not for the first time.

“Don’t worry,” Dendi said as she hid her hands behind her back. “Your teachers are both downstairs waiting for you. We have a few semantics to get to before you are released.”

“Um,” Ochako said. “Semantics?”

Dendi nodded comfortingly. “Yes, we have some testing to do. Health screenings and whatnot. This was an experiment, after all.”

“Oh,” Ochako said, adjusting her hold on her bag. “Right.”

The clicks of Dendi’s shoes were dull as she stepped back and gestured into the room with a smile. 

“This way, please.”

Ochako swallowed, unsure why her heart was pounding so hard. She found herself looking over at the ticking clocks scattered around the open doorway with a hint of dread.

She couldn’t bring herself to look back at the void.

With a deep breath, she stepped forward and Katsuki did the same. 

And then the door to the time chamber closed behind them.

It felt so quiet. 

She couldn’t tell if it was real or just in her heart. 

Dendi didn’t pause as she moved toward the long hallway off to the side that seemed to disappear into nowhere. Ochako tensed her jaw and followed, Katsuki matching her step for step. They wound through the tiled hall for longer than she’d have expected before reaching a large, open room with a broad, white desk at its center. Papers littered the surface haphazardly, a mug on one corner, likely half-full of old coffee, judging by the dried stain on the charts beneath. 

A door clicked open just as Dendi settled a hand on the desk’s top and the small woman peeked over her shoulder. Ochako stopped, still warring with the restless, empty feeling in her chest as her hands fell to her sides. 

“Karena,” Dendi said before the tall newcomer officially entered the room. “Perfect timing.”

And then one of the most intimidating women Ochako had ever seen stepped into her sight. 

Karena was as tall as Dendi was short. Her skin was a bold shade of pink, much darker than Mina’s, and her golden eyes glowed beneath a thick outline of black on her lids. Cropped red hair fell into her face between two small horns on her forehead while the sides were shaved tight around her ears. She tilted her head at Ochako, studying her for a breath with condescending eyes before moving on to Katsuki who sneered back at her. 

Dendi was unfazed as she latched her fingers together between her hips. 

“Uraraka, Bakugou,” Dendi said. “This is my wife, Karena. She’ll be doing your evaluation, Bakugou.”

Katsuki’s chin fell and his frown deepened, but he said nothing. 

“It’s just a few tests,” Dendi continued, moving toward another closed door as the silent Karena held hers open with a palm. “Uraraka, let’s take this room over here.”

Ochako was surprised to find Katsuki’s eyes on her when she glanced up at him wordlessly. A breath passed and she tore herself away, following Dendi into the waiting white room. 

-X-

_Just a few tests_ turned into hours worth of motor control exercises, balance tasks, runs on the small treadmill tucked awkwardly in a corner, and Ochako’s first experience on an inversion table. 

She wondered who was more upset about it: Katsuki or Aizawa-Sensei. 

“Any dizziness?” 

Ochako looked down at where Dendi sat crisscrossed on a wheeled stool and shook her head. Dendi scribbled on her clipboard before setting it on her lap and studying Ochako with her thin, narrow eyes. 

“Alright, Uraraka,” she said and Ochako connected the pads of her fingers in her lap, imagining the tune of her favorite song on their mp3 player. “I promise we’re wrapping up, but I still have to ask… How does it feel being back in the correct dimension? Any changes?”

Ochako shifted on the squeaking white patent of the exam table.

_It felt so different._

But how could she explain that difference to someone who hadn’t been there? To someone who hadn’t felt the chill, hadn’t carried the pull of gravity, hadn’t discovered themselves inside a void that stripped away everything in her life except who she really was, deep down inside?

How did she explain the pressure? The fear? The constant buzzing looming out in endless nothingness? The ticks of the clocks becoming one sound with the ever-falling grains of sand?

“Um,” she said, hesitating while she fidgeted, her concentration on her song broken. “It’s so… still.”

“Still?” Dendi asked, quirking a brow.

“Yeah, like,” she said, “everything is so… quiet.”

“Would you describe the time chamber as loud?”

“No,” Ochako answered quickly, assuredly. “It was just, well, _alive_ , I guess.”

Dendi mumbled something to herself and jotted down a note before looking back to Ochako. 

“Are you still feeling alright after all the tests?” 

“Yes,” Ochako said with a nod as she chewed on her bottom lip. “But it feels like… I don’t know how to describe it.” She cut off, staring into a corner of the room wondering how Katsuki was answering his questions. “It feels like I’m underwater. Everything is just... muted. Far away.”

Dendi’s brows creased and she hummed to herself in thought before taking note of Ochako’s confession. 

“Okay!” Dendi said at last with a clap of her hands against the clipboard. “That should do it.”

Ochako sucked in a breath of relief, dropping her palms to her sides to kick off the table.

“But,” Dendi continued and Ochako relaxed back into her seat. “I do want to warn you that you could experience some side effects in the coming days. If they persist into weeks then I’ll need you to come back to us for a study. So watch out for dizziness, shortness of breath, and blurred vision. If you or Bakugou lose consciousness then we’ll need to see you both right away, okay?”

Ochako swallowed and nodded to Dendi again. 

Dendi grinned. “Great! Now let’s see if we’ve put your teachers to sleep downstairs waiting for you.”

She hopped up from her seat and Ochako followed her back into the atrium-style workroom where Katsuki and Karena were standing on opposite walls with their arms crossed over their chests. Ochako looked between them slowly, dragging her eyes back to Katuski.

She couldn’t help but snicker. 

“Shut it!” he barked, turning to Dendi. “Are we done here?” 

Dendi smiled politely at him, her eyes sneaking over to her wife’s. 

“Yes,” she said. “You’re free to take the elevator back down and return to your lives.”

“Fuckin’ finally,” Katsuki grumbled, snatching their deposited luggage off the floor and setting off for the long, bizarrely curved hallway. He stopped at its mouth to look over his shoulder. “Cheeks!” 

Ochako frowned at him.

“I’m coming,” she said, dragging her feet toward him and doing her best to ignore the clawing feeling in her chest. “Sheesh.”

And just as they were taking the last step from the room, Dendi called out.

“Oh and I’ve already spoken with your principal about the Stage Day.”

Ochako and Katsuki froze. 

Ochako turned, leaning her head to the side as a strange chill ran up her throat. “Stage Day?”

“Yes yes,” Dendi said from beside Karena who was looking down on the chibi-like woman with the softest expression Ochako had seen on the pink woman’s face as she listened along. “We’ll be conducting a practical evaluation of the benefits you’ve received from the chamber. Myself, Karena, and our boss will attend along with a few board members and pro heroes interested in using Kami-Po Industries to further their careers.”

“Like we’ll fight?” Katsuki said over her shoulder and she reflexively glanced at his position with her peripherals. 

“Oh not necessarily!” Dendi said with a raise of his hands and an easy smile.

Karena touched a hand down on her wife’s shoulder. “We’ve given the parameters to your school. The two of you will show up and participate. That’s all you really need to know.”

“Like hell you--”

Ochako sidestepped in front of Katsuki as he moved toward the two women. He grumbled over her ear but didn't retreat from against her, instead letting his front be a small pressure between her shoulder blades. 

“Now, now.” Dendi pat her spouse’s hand with her own in a playful chide. “Don’t be rude to the children,” she said, turning her thoughtful grin to Ochako and Katsuki. “Though you hardly seem like children anymore, huh? Amazing what a year can do.”

“I’ll fucking show you wha--”

Ochako whipped around and smacked both her palms to Katsuki’s chest before craning her neck back to Dendi and smiling a little too wide. 

“Yes! Well! Thanks!” she chirped too high-pitched as she pushed Katsuki away from the room. “I guess we’ll see you on Stage Day!” 

Ochako barely caught the grins on both Dendi and Karena’s faces as she shoved Katsuki’s, much bigger than her, body into the hall. He threw his arms up, tossing hers off him as he glared down at her. She ripped her bag from his grip and looped a hand on his elbow to steer them forward. Distantly, they heard Dendi’s gentle voice.

“See you then.”

  
  


-X-

  
  
  


When the elevator doors closed, Ochako dropped her pink duffel bag to the floor. 

She couldn’t find words for the weight that was pressing into her chest, but it fell away for the briefest, sweetest of moments in the tiny room — alone again. She turned to Katsuki, shifting to his side. He watched her with a raised brow, his hand drifting through the space between them to touch down on her hip. She magnetized to him. 

Securing her arms tight around his waist, she buried her face in his chest. He pulled her in naturally, and a half-hearted grumble rolled through his chest. He held her there while the floors passed by slowly to the quiet, classical music.

Tears eventually pricked behind her eyes and she jerked away, rubbing furiously at the emotion creeping behind her cheeks. She tried to hide her face from him, but Katsuki simply slipped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her desperate fingers away. 

He turned her in one motion and notched his thumb under her chin. And then he bent, planting a soft kiss on her lips. 

She melted into him, the choking of tears in her throat warring with the warmth spreading beneath her skin everywhere they touched. 

This was it. 

This was the real world. 

There was no going back now.

  
  


-X-

  
  


When the doors opened to the first-floor lobby, they had separated. 

Still, Katsuki kept a hand hidden at the small of her back as they stepped out of the elevator and she was grateful for how grounding the gesture was. 

It fell away when they found an irritable looking Aizawa-Sensei slouched on a too-firm and poorly upholstered couch near the entrance. Present Mic was in plain clothes, his hair bundled up in a bun not unlike Katsuki’s. He was also cuddled up to Aizawa-Sensei’s side, his head lolling on Aizawa-Sensei’s shoulder with his mouth hanging wide open. 

Aizawa-Sensei barely blinked when he saw them approach. He moved a hand to Present Mic’s cheek to pop a soft flick that rocketed the other man awake.

“Gah!” Present Mic gasped, immediately adjusting the glasses barely hanging from his nose. “Wha? What? I’m up. I’m awake.”

“They’re done,” Aizawa-Sensei said, gathering his keys from his pocket as he stood. “I need to get the hell out of this building.”

“Oooh,” Present Mic said, pulling to his feet. He straightened his flowy v-neck as he followed Aizawa-Sensei. “Someone’s grumpy.”

“Kill me,” Aizawa-Sensei mumbled. 

Present Mic’s mouth popped open in offense. “Shouta!”

“Hizashi.”

Ochako was starting to think her teachers were closer than she originally thought they were. 

She and Katsuki stayed close behind them as they walked the short distance to the parking garage they’d found for this trip. It wasn’t until they’d stacked their bags in the middle of the backseat and clambered in that Present Mic twisted around in his seat.

“Wait, WHAT!”

“Hizashi,” Aizawa-Sensei said again, his tone a stern reprimand as he shifted the car into gear. 

But Present Mic only tapped his hands on Aizawa-Sensei’s shoulders in a staccato rhythm.

“No, but, look at them, Shouta! This is wild!” 

Aizawa-Sensei sighed. “I’m driving.”

“Well at a red light then,” Present Mic argued. 

“Probably not.”

“Oh!” Present Mic revolved in his seat, digging through the floorboards before turning back to them. “Per your classmate’s request.”

And then he held out their cell phones.

“Pinky--”

“Ashido--”

Aizawa-Sensei and Katsuki shared a glance in the rearview mirror. 

Ochako stared at her phone. The worn pink planet sticker on the back seemed so foreign now, its curling edges proof of a whole other life. She found herself looking over at Katsuki who met her eyes with a strange look on his face and she tried to remember another time he’d looked at her that way. 

_How about now?_

The tightness in her chest dissolved a bit.

Was he worried?

A buzz sounded through the quiet car and Present Mic’s hand flailed, both phones dropping to the floorboard at Ochako’s feet in soft thuds. 

“Ooh,” he said. “Sorry! Wasn’t expecting your phones to go off like that.”

Aizawa-Sensei sighed as he merged onto the highway. 

Ochako reached down, picking up her phone and then Katsuki’s, the glass screen illuminating at her touch. 

“Wow,” she said, the word tumbling out. “That’s… a lot of notifications.”

Thirty-four missed calls to be exact, all from an unknown number. She didn’t even want to know how many texts he probably had waiting for him too. 

“Tch,” he said, scowling. “It’s just my fucking mom.”

Ochako’s mouth fell open as he snatched his phone from her open hand. 

“You… don’t have your mom’s phone number saved?”

A dark chuckle shot out between his lips. 

“Absolutely not.”

When his attention turned to his phone, so did hers. 

Her parents had sent her messages in a group text wishing her good luck and to let them know when she was safe. She typed up a quick response, eagerly telling them she’d call tomorrow and accenting her words with more emoji hearts than she cared to admit. 

There were a few texts from Tsu and Mina, but otherwise, her phone was fairly dry. Katsuki had already tucked his into his pocket when she looked over at him. He slouched in his seat, resting his head against the window.

“Wake me up when we get there,” he said, soft enough for only Ochako to hear. 

-X-

_There_ turned into a diner off the main highway twenty minutes from making it home.

“I swear!” Present Mic said, popping up from his seat and stretching his arms wide above his head. “They have the _best_ American food I’ve ever tasted. You can’t get it like this in town.”

Aizawa-Sensei sighed, his face pressed against the steering wheel.

“You’re lucky I’m hungry.”

Ochako tapped Katsuki’s arm.

“Already up,” he said, his eyes still closed. 

She continued to poke him anyway. 

“I know,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a lighter sleeper.”

“I wish they’d had earplugs in the chamber to protect me from your feral snoring.”

Ochako jabbed him, frowning over their stacked bags in the backseat. 

“I told you! I. Do. Not. Snore.”

“Like a bear.”

“No! Definitely not!” 

“I bet that Devil Witch could hear you from another dimension,” he said and her jaw dropped open.

Present Mic knocked on the glass behind Katsuki’s head, grinning. “You guys coming?!”

Katsuki growled at him silently before reaching for the handle. When they were inside following their teachers to an open booth Ochako touched his elbow.

“Devil Witch?”

Katsuki slowed his steps, looking down at her. “That infernal pink woman.”

Ochako chuckled. “You kind of have a type when it comes to women who get under your skin, huh?”

“No,” he said, matter-of-fact. “Only your cheeks are pink.”

She hip-checked him with a playful grimace as they all slid into their seats. 

Present Mic bounced the bottom edge of his menu on the table as Aizawa stared down a server until he could ask for a cup of black coffee. They all chose the first item on the menu in an awkward silence only filled with the occasional remark from Present Mic which Ochako tried fervently to reciprocate. 

Once Aizawa-Sensei finished his second cup and most of his meal, he wiped his chin with a napkin and looked between Ochako and Katsuki. 

“I guess we should hammer out a few things.”

Ochako’s heart lurched. 

“First of all,” Aizawa-Sensei said, dropping his elbows to the table. “It’s obvious you’ll both need new uniforms so you can head to the Support Closet before class tomorrow to be fitted into new ones.”

She relaxed, sliding down in her seat. Her arm dragged across Katsuki’s and he glanced at her, his mouth full. 

“As for your studies, remember to take advantage of library hours,” Aizawa-Sensei continued, Present Mic nodding along over his shoulder as he slurped from his cheap paper cup of soda. “Though I’m sure your classmates will be more than eager to assist you.”

“Oh, yeah,” Present Mic said, leaning over the table and blocking some of Aizawa-Sensei from view. “They’re all so depressed without you guys. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re waiting for you in the common room.”

Aizawa-Sensei frowned at this. “It’s already late. Be mindful of curfew.”

Ochako nodded distantly, imagining all her old friends in one place, waiting up just to see her. Though they weren’t old friends, she supposed. Tension coiled in her throat. 

What would they all think of her now?

Would Iida still walk with her to the vending machines when she felt a sudden craving between classes? Would Tsu still come to her room with flashcards the night before a test? Would Mina and Hagakure still demand girls’ nights to force her into some form of self-care she so typically neglected? 

How had Satou’s morning baking gone without her?

What else had she missed?

A french fry appeared in front of her empty plate and she followed Katsuki’s hand up to his face. He watched her with a folded brow and she gave him an impish smile before accepting his offering and tossing it into her mouth.

In reality, she probably hadn’t missed anything, she realized. 

It was everyone else who had missed out on her.

She didn’t feel that different, not really. And yet, she could hardly remember the girl that stepped into the chamber a year ago. All her old fears felt so small now, so far away. 

How could she explain that to the others?

Both Ochako and Katsuki thanked Present Mic when he paid for their meal, though Katsuki’s bow was more of a nod. The group left the table in the same discomfort they’d eaten in, Ochako losing herself to her thoughts more and more as time went on. 

When Katsuki pushed open the glass door that set off a tinkling bell on their exit, he cursed under his breath and dug through his pocket. 

Ochako stepped into his space, attempting to spy on his phone’s display as he pulled it out. 

“Are you fucking serious?”

Aizawa-Sensei and Present Mic reached the car ahead of them and Ochako raised a hand to Katsuki’s screen. He yanked the phone away with a grumble. 

“Just answer her and she’ll leave you alone.”

“Tch,” he spat. “No way.”

“C’mon,” Ochako said. “Just rip the bandaid off. You can’t avoid her forever.”

“No.”

But Ochako pressed a hand to his arm with a wicked grin.

“CHEEKS!” he roared as his body began to lift off the diner parking lot. 

She latched her fingers around his forearm, pulling the phone toward her and automatically answering the call with a swipe. Present Mic yelled at them to hurry while Ochako shoved the phone to Katsuki’s ear. 

_“ BAKUGOU KATSUKI! ”_

Ochako froze at the sound of the voice on his phone and when she saw the video feed on screen the color drained from her face. 

Katsuki dropped his arm and glared at her. 

“I didn’t know…”

It wasn’t a call.

It was a FaceTime.

He narrowed his eyes at her before raising a hand to flick his finger too hard on her nose. She turned away, rubbing at the reflexive tears it brought on unbidden. 

“GET IN THE CAR!” 

Ochako flinched at Aizawa-Sensei’s command, quickly scrambling across the asphalt to duck into the backseat. Katsuki dragged behind. 

_“ Katsuki, if you don’t lift up this phone and say something so help me--”_

Katsuki rolled his head back on the headrest, looking up to the fabric roof of the car as he shut his door. 

“I’m sorry,” Ochako mouthed to him.

He slid his eyes to her and she debated just how angry with her he was. 

Then he raised the phone as Aizawa-Sensei pulled the car back onto the highway. 

“What do you want, hag?”

His mother took up most of the frame, though a man Ochako assumed to be his father stood in the background, looking over her shoulder. 

Katuski looked exactly like her. 

_“ Is it really too much to ask to check in on you after-- Katsuki! Your hair! ”_

At the mention, Katsuki touched a hand to his headband with a sighing scoff. 

“I barely got my phone back a minute ago,” he told her. 

Present Mic started to turn in his seat, opening his mouth, but Aizawa-Sensei elbowed him with his attention still on the road. 

“ _Tch,_ _”_ his mother said and Ochako thought she could see a mist in her eyes. _“_ _Guess I’ll have to catch up then, huh, asshole? ”_

Ochako raised a brow at Katsuki who looked back at her with a scowl. 

_“ Katsuki! Who do you keep looking at? Tell us about the time chamber!_ _”_ Katsuki’s mother said and Ochako smiled, shifting closer to their bags between them. 

Katsuki groaned. “It’s Ochako.”

His father moved closer to the camera. _“_ _As in Uraraka Ochako? ”_

“Yeah.”

His mother visibly brightened. _“_ _Let us say hi! ”_

Katsuki tensed his jaw and looked away before sliding the face of his phone toward Ochako. She straightened stiff immediately, raising a hand in a meek wave while a pink blush started on her cheeks. 

“Hi--”

 _“ Oh my god, you’re so cute!_ _”_ his mother nearly screamed. 

His father returned her wave. “ _It’s nice to meet you. I remember you from the Sports Festival. ”_

“Ah,” Ochako said with a strange smile, tucking a hand behind her neck. “Yeah, it’s been a while.”

Katsuki repositioned his phone in front of himself. 

“There,” he said. “You both happy?”

_“ Yes-- ”_

_“ No! ”_

Katsuki clenched his teeth, his face turning an angry shade of red. “Well that’s all you get, so you better--”

 _“ Katsuki,_ _”_ his father interrupted in a small voice. _“_ _What if the two of you come by some time this week for dinner? Then we can really talk about your experience. ”_

The rage in Katsuki’s face settled a bit and he glanced at Ochako. 

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I was actually going to do that anyway.” 

His mother raised a curious brow. 

“Dad, do you think you could make mochi that day?”

His father smiled and his mother put some space between herself and the camera, looking over at her husband briefly. 

_“ Of course. Just text me the day,_ _”_ he said politely. “ _We’re happy you’re safe. Text us what day you pick. We’re free this week. ”_

Katsuki nodded silently, his fingers tight around his phone. 

_“Nice to meet you, Uraraka. ”_

_“ See you soon brat! ”_

Katsuki’s lip curled and he hung up the call without responding to either of them. A silence fell between them and Ochako glanced up to the front seat, fighting the urge to reach out and touch Katsuki for some kind of assurance.

Instead, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

He scanned her face for a moment before sighing, all the tension in his muscles draining away. 

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, sliding his leg over the seat to touch his knee to hers. “It was inevitable.”

Relieved, she held the pressure against her knee to his and turned to the window to watch their city come into view. 

Once they were parked in the staff lot at the rear entrance, their teachers bid them a few last warnings about a good night’s sleep and then they were let loose on the campus. 

Which was… strange.

Everything was just as Ochako remembered it, even with the beginnings of dusk settling in around them. Spring was alive in the crisp green of the grass and the peppering of white and pink flowers tucked away into the trees. The amount of life that surrounded them everywhere they went was startling. They followed the winding sidewalk toward their dorm.

She looked up at Katsuki beside her. He studied her for a second before adjusting his bag on his shoulder and slipping his hand into hers. 

“Stop being nervous.”

She snorted, squeezing his fingers. 

“Gee, thanks,” she said, thickening her sarcasm as much as possible. 

A smirk tugged on his lips and he stopped them both with a pull of his wrist. He dropped his eyes down her body, dragging them back up to her lips. 

“That mouth.”

Her heart paused. She grinned up at him before rising on her toes.

He met her in a kiss that settled something wiry and fierce loose in her chest. His free hand wrapped around her neck, holding her against him as his thumb traced over the vulnerable skin. She placed a hand over his heart to feel the steadying beat beneath. 

When they broke apart their lips stayed close, both taking in a slow, cleansing breath of each other. 

But a creeping feeling fell on her shoulder and she turned her cheek to him.

Only to see Deku standing between them and home.

  
  


-X-

  
  


Midoriya Izuku had texted Uraraka over the summer break. 

They’d talked about their parents and what they were doing to stay in shape in their downtime, though Izuku made it a point to leave out his extra training with All Might. She’d send him a bright good morning here and there. He’d snap a picture of dinner or the road ahead of him before an evening run. 

They were friends. 

Best friends.

He felt he knew her almost as well as he knew Kacchan. 

Kacchan, the boy he’d raced around his backyard with in All Might onesies. Kacchan, the friend he’d followed through the woods, sticks held as high as their imaginations. Kacchan, the classmate who’d slowly pulled away from him to boldly pursue his dreams.

Kacchan, his rival.

His childhood. 

But as Izuku stood outside the brick perimeter of Heights Alliance, he didn’t see Uraraka and Kacchan frozen midstep ahead of him. 

No, these were strangers. 

And they were…

Together.

Kissing.

Uraraka’s eyes widened when she saw him. Her fingers clenched around the strap of her bag on her shoulder, highlighting a new definition in her arm. Her hair fell down her shoulders in waves twice the length he’d seen it yesterday. Izuku wondered if that was what smoothed her face with a new air of maturity. He recognized Kacchan’s shirt tied down at her waist to fit. She parted her lips in the evening light and shifted away from the intimate embrace, the muscles of her thighs popping out beneath her tight shorts as she moved. 

“Deku,” she breathed into the dimming space between them.

And then she cast a quick, blushing glance up at Kacchan.

He was massive. 

He’d grown up and out, his leaned tone bulking along with his new frame. He wore all black, just like Uraraka, his tank top stretched too tight across his chest. A thin headband pulled his too-long hair back from his face, the rest tied up behind. The scowl Izuku remembered was different, softer almost, though still unfriendly. Not a single sign of embarrassment at the moment between him and Uraraka that Izuku had just witnessed showed on his face. 

Any lingering qualities of Kacchan -- of the boy in an All Might onesie he’d once known -- was gone. Instead, this was Bakugou Katsuki.

“Um,” Uraraka said. “Hey.”

Kacchan looked down at her with a raised brow as she pulled her hands together, dropping his, and tapping her fingerpads in a restless rhythm. 

“Hi...” Izuku answered distantly, pausing to look over them both once more, “...you guys.”

Uraraka’s lips upturned in a hesitant grin and Kacchan crossed his arms. 

“Well, uh,” Izuku forced himself to continue the conversation, his mind racing. “How was it?”

They both stared at him for a moment before Uraraka pressed her lips together in a thin line. Her fingers drew up to cover her mouth before a quiet splutter spilled out. 

Kacchan growled down at her. 

“What?” she asked, turning to him with a bright grin. “It’s funny.”

“How is that funny?” 

Uraraka’s giggles rolled into a fit and she reached out to his chest with the knuckles of her fist to steady herself. 

“Did you not _hear_ him?” she said.

“Cheeks.” Kacchan rolled his head back with a sigh. “All he said was ‘how was it’?”

Uraraka held her stomach, her palm returning over her lips. 

“Exactly!” she said through her fingers. “I’d like to see you _try_ to explain it to him.”

“Tch,” he scoffed at her, turning away and slipping his hands into his pockets. 

“Oh?” she asked, straightening. “Unless you think you can’t?”

He whipped his head around and glowered at her. “You are the devil.”

Uraraka grinned up at him wickedly. 

“Only to you,” she teased.

Izuku scratched his elbow idly, waves of emotion roiling through him. “So I guess that means it was good?”

Their eyes lasered in on him as if they’d forgotten he was even there and Izuku held back his blush. It was strange, but he couldn’t help feeling like an intruder. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Kacchan carry a light-hearted conversation with someone.

“Yeah.” Uraraka lifted a hand to her neck and smiled at him sheepishly. “It was good.”

“Good,” Izuku repeated, swallowing something thick. “Actually, I was kind of waiting for you guys…”

Kacchan frowned and dragged a foot back, angling himself toward Uraraka while keeping his eyes on Izuku. 

“You’re close now?” he heard himself ask before slapping both his hands over his mouth. This time his blush started low on his neck, creeping up over his cheeks in a hot bloom. “S- sorry! I just mean, well, it makes sense, you know? For you two to be closer now… what with it being a whole year in there and all…”

Uraraka’s eyes flit to Kacchan’s and away again while he bristled in place, looking ready for anything better than talking to Izuku. 

“It was a year, right? It’s hard to believe,” he went on, talking too fast. “I couldn’t imagine… looking back on the last year and UA and thinking you guys just did that all over again alone. I know how close the class has gotten, but with just the two of you, er, um, well—”

“Deku,” Kacchan snapped. “Shut up.”

Uraraka stepped forward, raising her hands up at her waist. “What he means is… yeah. It is a little surreal, even for us.”

Izuku looked between them. 

And sighed.

“I’m… happy for you.”

Uraraka and Kacchan both stiffened. 

But Izuku continued, “I know my opinion doesn’t really matter… but still, I couldn’t imagine two better people…” his voice trailed off and a silence settled. 

Uraraka stepped forward a bit, a small smile turning up her cheek. 

“Thanks, Deku.”

Izuku breathed an empty laugh, pulling a hand to scratch at the back of his neck. 

“Well, uh, everyone is waiting for you guys in the common room,” he said, shifting on his feet. “That’s actually why I came to wait for you guys. I figured Kacchan might want a warning.”

The sun sank lower around them, night beginning to take the reins. 

Kacchan’s eyes hadn’t once left Izuku’s and he struggled not to look away again. 

But finally, Kacchan raised a hand to Uraraka’s waist and she tipped her head back to look up at him.

“We’re going through a window.”

-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~ welcome to the next arc ~ 
> 
> *more screaming*


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako and Katsuki avoid their class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so special to me. 
> 
> When they left the time chamber a part of me was worried that I wouldn't love another chapter like I loved those sensitive chapters full of intimacy within the chamber. And then this was born and I was proven wrong. Possibly my new favorite chapter. 
> 
> The playlist should be listened to in order (though it ending and repeating over in a loop is fine) and you can find it: [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2UC2x22qHh8s8IziUvuHfE?si=ACQ7e7tkSn6CxvuIDBo9_w)! 
> 
> Buckle up, I was really emotional for this one.

-X-

Ochako snickered behind her hand as Katsuki led her onto the open campus field behind Heights Alliance. Her eyes glowed at the pull of his cheek she could barely see as he tugged her along. 

She was excited to see her friends. 

But she could admit she was anxious too. 

And how could she refuse Katsuki when he was feeling up for antics? It was just... too cute. 

They reached the rear of the surrounding brick fence and Katsuki turned to her, raising a hand out at his waist. 

“Ready?”

She couldn’t stop looking at him — his warm, smooth skin, his sharp, red eyes taut with determination, the bold, confident set of his lips. 

“Always,” she smiled, latching her hand with his. 

She set their volume to what she used to moonwalk, the gravity draining from her limbs slowly until the rest of her followed. They vaulted the short wall in an easy glide through the air, the process of releasing and returning her hand to his to start their near-weightlessness all over again coming naturally. 

A grin stretched across her cheeks and with a ghost of a reflection on his, they leapt up the brick of Height’s Alliance. Grabbing at any crevice available, they scaled their dorms, steering clear of passing windows until they came upon hers. 

Ochako slowed, Katsuki doing the same after a beat. Her eyes peeled to the balcony entrance, lasering there while a creeping anxiety quickened her breath. She turned to him and he exhaled. 

“They’re probably gonna break down the doors to find us, you know?” he grumbled softly. “Those assholes are gonna hunt me down. I just know it. Idiots.”

Ochako chewed her lip, searching the closed curtains of her dorm room for an answer. 

What would it feel like to see all her things again? Her clothes, her bed, her schoolwork? They were all right there on the other side of the glass, waiting for her.

Just like her friends were all waiting for her down below. 

What would they think of her now?

Was she really so different that she needed to worry about it?

But she already knew the answer to that. She felt it deep inside.

Katsuki’s rough fingers touched down on her arm and she turned to his frown. 

“Can we…” she started, watching as he adjusted his grip on the next window over. “Do you think we could maybe wait somewhere else?”

“What happened to getting it over with, hah?” he said, his voice too light to pack a punch. 

She swallowed, checking her balcony one more time. “I just… I want a little more time.”

He scanned her face for a moment, his frown unfurling to smooth over his features. 

“Sure, Cheeks,” he said. “But time does run out eventually.”

Her head bowed and he wrapped his hand around her bicep. She looked over at him just in time to see him grin.

“Hope you’re still ready.”

And then he ripped her off the wall, her weakened gravity an easy carry to his new strength. He flung her straight up the brick and she bit back a surprised scream. She watched the concrete lines pass by through the wind, a giddy feeling overtaking her chest. 

Katsuki gave chase.

Then she was climbing, heart racing as he caught up to her ankles, her waist.

Their pace intensified, eyes slipping to each other in the last wisps of sunlight. Rogue strands of blonde hair slipped from his headband, blowing across his face and Ochako let herself be distracted for a second longer. 

When they reached the top, they threw themselves over, rolling across the roof’s highest point in failed somersaults until they landed flat on their backs, dragging their heads to look one another despite their awkward positions. Ochako’s chest heaved against the slanted tiling. She pulled her fingers together in a quick release, her hands falling to cover her wide grin as she stared up at the sky. 

She wasn’t sure whether it was the adrenaline or the nerves of everything to come, but either way, she was grateful for this moment.

Katsuki was smiling. 

A laugh tumbled through her, humming against her lips in a giggle. Katsuki shuffled over to her side, raising a hand to her mouth before leaning in to whisper in her ear. 

“Shut it. They’ll hear you.”

Her smile stretched against his palm and a chill shook through her at his rough voice, his breath hot on her neck. 

He noticed. 

His hand moved, his thumb dragging across her lips to fall down to her neck. Leaning over her, his eyes raked from her cheeks to her mouth as he teased a smirk. 

Their kiss came slowly. Katsuki touched down from above her with a light press against her lips, his fingers curling through her hair. She arched naturally, diving into him with a sweet remembrance. 

Everything was different. 

The breeze against the flush of her cheeks, the distant crickets singing somewhere far away, the darkness that meant time was once again a routine to blend in with and become a part of. 

But still, Katsuki was the same. 

She reached for him, letting her hands slip from his chest over his shoulders, pulling him down to her. He pushed her fallen bag aside and it dropped lower on the angled roof as he settled himself atop her with his other hand. She drew up her knees to his hips automatically, feeling them fit together the same way they had so many times before. 

She’d never get enough. 

Lifting her hips at his fingers sliding beneath her waistband, she could have purred. Their lips opened for tongues, one of her hands moving to grab his at her neck. She led him to the tie at the base of her shirt -- his shirt. He snapped the knot free, letting the fabric swallow her before he snuck a hand up beneath her bra. His nails dug at her plump skin, his grip on her hip tightening. 

She pressed herself into his lips, rising from the roof tiles that dug into her back to show him how much she wanted this -- how much she needed it. 

His touches slowed, caressing from her chest down her middle to tease softly against her sides. 

She latched her legs to his waist and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Then she turned. They slid down the tiles a bit as she reversed them, rolling until she straddled him, his hard, familiar heat settled where she wanted it most. 

“Ochako,” he said, his voice gruff and hesitant. “Someone will—”

She silenced him with a kiss. His hands found her hips in an instant and he moved with her as she rubbed herself against him in a fluid motion. He grunted, low and sharp. 

When she broke away, she caught her breath against his lips, letting the night air around them thicken and warm. 

“Ready?” she asked him. 

His eyes popped open, refocusing on her in her nearness. 

“We don’t have..” he said, trailing off into a whisper as she kissed her way across his jawline, to his ear and down his neck. 

“We do,” she said into his skin. 

His throat vibrated against her lips. 

She crawled to her bag, nearly upending it on the unsteady shingles as she retrieved their last condom. The night was bright around them, more than enough to see what she was doing unlike the void where they stumbled and learned each other’s bodies by fumbling touches. 

After a quick look over her shoulder to the vacant courtyard below, she tugged off her shorts, feeling Katsuki’s eyes on her the whole time. She moved to him next, pawing at the waist of his pants until he was free in the soft, real-world air. 

She rolled the condom on with practiced fingers. 

His hands were on her sides in seconds as she carefully drew a leg across him, coming to rest with his head ready to enter. She hovered atop him for a moment, their eyes drawn together. 

She could hear themselves, clear as if they’d spoken the words aloud once more. 

_Do you think it will still be like this?_

Adjusting, she fit him inside her -- just the tip. Edging her way down, she waited to feel wet enough to drop. 

And then she did. 

He sank into her in one motion, both their lips gasping open. She bowed over him, a hand falling to his chest. A hot pulse centered around the point of their connection and she lifted her eyes to his. He watched her, something soft on his features as he reached a hand for her cheek and pulled her to him in a rough desperation. 

Their lips crashed into each other and she rocked atop him, a low sound racing up her throat. His touch rose to her chest, slipping easily beneath her shirt. He kissed along her jaw and down her neck as he fisted the only fabric keeping her clothed and tugged until the neckline stretched across the slopes of her chest. A shaky breath escaped her as his tongue and teeth traced their way down until he had a mouthful of her breast.

She reared back, sitting up straight and his hands followed her, dragging slow lines over her skin. With a flex of her thighs beneath his touch, she raised, feeling him in his entirety as she slid away. He curled his fingers into her, seizing the taut muscles of her legs in his grasp as he watched her. 

She dropped again and her head fell back as he hit down on a sensitive spot, a feathered blur in her senses tingling through her limbs. Riding him wasn’t something she’d done often, but there was a thrill to it that sent her blood soaring. 

Katsuki clenched his jaw, biting back the muffled sounds that rolled through his chest as she moved. His touches traveled her every curve, squeezing and pulling and speaking for him when words couldn’t like he’d done so many times before. 

When the pressure coiled tight inside her began to spark through her muscles, she quickened. He held her waist steady, rising to meet her with their every panting breath. 

Until she broke. 

He let out his own groan of relief as she collapsed to his chest. They edged down the rooftop, Katsuki throwing out his hands to catch them where they were. She breathed in the scent of him, heavy with the thin sheen of sweat across his collar. 

She grinned, turning to bury her nose in his neck. 

Because he was right. 

_I don’t see why not._

Turning his head, he nudged his chin against her forehead until she looked up at him. He pressed his lips against her hairline for a beat, and then two, before he whispered into her hair. 

“Put your pants back on. We’re in public.”

She chuckled once. 

“Rude,” she said, her voice low.

“Tch,” he said. “You’re the exhibitionist.”

She reached for her shorts, grateful they hadn’t travelled too far across the roof tiles. 

“As if you didn’t enjoy yourself,” she smarted back, clothing herself as he peeled off the condom and groaned realizing there was nowhere to put it. 

He tied it off and tossed it to the side.

She frowned at him. 

“I’ll blow it up later.”

She returned to his side as he finished adjusting his joggers before he tucked his arm around her smoothly. Everything around them felt so natural, not just the way they fit together in a contrast of puzzle pieces, but the way the occasional bird fluttered through the trees and the gentle song of the wind sloping over the pointed rooftop. 

The chamber had been alive in its own way -- clinical and unnatural like a presence always over their shoulders. This was a comforting embrace, a welcoming to the world inhabited by so many others. 

Stars twinkled and flickered across the wide, open sky. 

A small smile pulled across her lips.

“Do you think they really broke down your door?”

He laughed, her head bouncing against his chest.

“Probably.”

-X-

They stayed there for longer than Ochako could figure, though time was a cruel concept for her at this point. They pulled apart at last, retrieving their discarded bags and clambering to their feet that remained steady despite the harsh angle. 

“So,” she started, looking between him and the lit city of Musutafu in the distance. 

“Cheeks, it’s gonna be fine,” he said, cutting her off. 

She whipped her eyes back to him. “I know!”

He quirked a brow. 

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“I’m not looking at you like anything,” he said. 

She frowned. “You are, but okay.”

He exhaled a breath of a laugh through his nose and stepped toward her, planting a knuckle beneath her chin to claim her full attention before he settled a kiss on her lips. 

“You can jump off my back midair going fast as hell and land safely in ten times this gravity, Ochako,” he said, scanning her face. “You’ll be fine.”

A hint of a blush tinged her cheeks pink in the moonlight and he brushed a thumb across it. 

She watched him for a moment, absorbing the silence -- memorizing his face.

Finally, she said, “Training in the morning?”

He smirked. 

“That’s gonna be early, Cheeks. We have fittings too.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, reaching for his free hand with both of hers. Watching herself graze her fingerpads across his palm, she said, “I don’t care.”

“Oi.”

Her eyes snapped up to him again. 

“Stop being so sad.”

She crinkled her brows. “It’s not that easy…”

“Well,” he said. “Figure it out. It’s pissing me off.”

Leaning forward, she dropped her head on his chest with a loud sigh. 

“Teach me to stuff all my feelings down,” she mumbled into him.

“What?!” he barked, his arms pulling to wrap around her. “I don’t do that.”

She giggled, not bothering to hide the sound. 

“Yeah and I don’t have pink cheeks.”

“Are you picking on me?”

“Why?” She leaned back to look up at him. “Can’t take it?”

He grinned at her, quick as if accidental, and she realized she was grinning too. 

“I’ll take anything you’ve got to give, Cheeks.”

She fisted his shirt to pull him down, raising on her tiptoes to meet him in a kiss. This time it was soft, tender -- lingering. With a hand to his cheek, she lowered his gravity along with her own by a clenched hand at her side. 

When they pulled apart, she looked away. 

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said, tucking pieces of her hair behind her ear. 

She nodded, trying not to look up at him. 

“Release me in five?”

She nodded again, swearing to herself that she wasn’t feeling the swell of tears rising beneath her eyes. 

“Ochako.”

“No! No,” she said, too fast. “I’m fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He paused before letting out a heavy sigh. He palmed her head clumsily, pulling her to him to plant a kiss to her hair. 

“Go to sleep.”

She nodded another time, vigorously. 

Then he pat her on the ass and she hopped a step, catching her balance on the awkward tiles. 

“Five minutes,” he called out, his voice shrinking as he walked toward the boys’ side of the dorms. 

Ochako stopped at the roof’s edge, the toes of her sneakers hanging over in the night. She told herself she wouldn’t look back at Katsuki, but she was weak too sometimes. 

He reached the end of the adjacent roof, its tip blocking her view of his lower half, and then he dipped his chin to look back at her. 

She smiled when he smirked at her and she could practically hear him telling her to stop being a sap. 

He turned to her and threw up an arm before a small flash blew from his palm. The condom. She laughed to herself as she watched him lean forward, making a show of diving off the roof. 

It was back to their dorms now. 

She shoved any further thoughts on the matter away and jumped off the roof. Floating softly in her descent, she pushed off the wall until she could grab at the railing of the narrow balcony. Her bag tugged on her shoulder as she stopped, its normal gravity coming to a jarring halt. She hopped over, sliding open the glass with fingers that definitely weren’t shaking. 

With an arm, she moved her dull curtain aside as the familiar smell of her room drifted around her senses. It was all how she’d left it: her sloppily made bed, her unplugged fan on the floor, her cactus atop her desk. None of it seemed to feel the absence that still crawled through her heart with pointed talons that scraped along the tender edges so she’d never forget. 

She released her quirk and dropped her bag haphazardly on the floor, closing the glass behind her. 

Trudging across the generic wood beneath her feet, she pulled open her closet door and scanned through its contents. A pink dress caught her attention and she drew a hand down its skirt. It felt like a lifetime ago that she’d wear something like this. 

The cord to her alarm clock snaked over the floor from where she’d unplugged all of her electronics on a habit, unwilling to use the power while she was away for a long period of time. Though, she realized, that was pointless in many ways now. She reconnected the clock and wondered how she’d set the time when she remembered she had a phone tucked away in her bag somewhere. 

Once the red numbers stopped blinking zeroes at her, she sat on the edge of her bed with a restlessness creeping through her limbs. 

Sleep. She should sleep. 

But when she moved to take off her shirt, she couldn’t do it. 

It was Katsuki’s. 

So she slipped off her bra, exchanging her shorts for pajama bottoms and forced herself to crawl into the empty bed. The blanket was scratchy compared to theirs in the chamber, its color along with the rest in her room, overwhelming. She turned, reaching out an arm across the mattress as if he’d suddenly be there to mold to her side. 

What was Katsuki doing right now?

Would he be lying on his pillow thinking of her too?

Her throat thickened, something sharp tightening behind her eyes and she searched for a distraction. Anything to keep her mind off the chill of her lonely bed, off the way she felt her room would never be home ever again. 

She found her phone.

Losing herself on the internet lasted over an hour as she wandered through her thoughts, searching for something to make her feel… normal. 

Eventually, though, she had to give up. 

The solitude was winning. 

She buried her face in her pillow, only for a moment, and allowed herself to let three, heavy sobs loose. When she was done, she sat up and wiped her face on the neck of Katsuki’s shirt. Wrapping herself in her comforter, she stood, padding over to the door on bare feet. The quiet trek down to the kitchen was full, and yet empty. 

Her hot cocoa mix was where she’d left it, the mug warm in her grip just like she remembered it to be. She nested on the common room couch, fluffing up her blanket of armor that covered her in a hooded hug, only her face left open to the stale air. 

It really was only yesterday that she’d been here before. 

She’d sat in this exact spot so many times with her friends, talking about going to the mall on their day off that week or comparing notes for Present Mic’s next pop quiz, even debating their futures.

They’d planned their lives as heroes together. 

Now that picture was muddy.

It was changing and growing like she was. 

Her rescue abilities had been magnified tenfold by her quirk’s expansion. Her strength and skill in a fight on par with Katsuki’s. She didn’t feel like the girl who entered UA. She didn’t feel like the girl who wanted to respond to natural disasters and stay afloat with enough money to make a living for her parents. 

She felt like more. 

She felt like a true hero. 

Anything felt possible now, whichever way she wanted to go. 

And more than anything, she realized she wanted to go that way with Katsuki. 

The ache in her chest coiled. 

There was a future ahead of her that she couldn’t see, could never fully know until she experienced it. And though the thought filled her with fear, the thrill that accompanied it was new. She wanted adventure. She wanted to fight. 

She wanted to fly. 

A shuffling sounded on the carpet and she froze, her eyes snapping to the hallway of elevators. 

And then she couldn’t help the tears that welled, spilling over one at a time. 

“I thought I told you to go to bed.”

Katsuki stood in the threshold, shirtless with his joggers hanging low on his hips. 

She could taste the salt in her smile through the dim room as she brushed her face clean with her blanket before setting down her mug to open her arms. 

He stared at her with a raised brow, the corner of his lips upturning. 

When he didn’t move toward her, she dropped her hold on the comforter. Heart pounding, she raised her hands, crossing two fingers on each and shaking them lightly. 

His features slackened. 

“Cheeks,” he breathed. “What is that?”

Her gaze flickered over him as she repeated the motion, this time saying, “Ready?”

His eyes fell shut, his deep inhale the only sound in the room. 

“Ochako.”

She bit her lip. 

“This is how you say ‘always’--”

But he wasn’t listening to her anymore. He crossed the room in long strides, sliding onto the couch over her. His arms slipped under hers, his knees touching down around her thighs as he moved her back against the cushions. She grabbed the corners of her blanket before wrapping her arms around him as he settled against her chest. 

“You should have tried to sleep instead of doing that,” he said, his voice a muffled growl in the crux of her neck. 

“Don’t--”

“Thank you.”

She relaxed beneath him, tightening her arms around his back. Trailing a hand over his head, she kissed his hair like he’d done for her so many times before. His massive frame swallowed hers, and honestly she wouldn’t have it any other way.

A heavy exhaustion fell through her bones, and she wasn’t sure whether it was his weight over her or the peace of having him to sleep with once more.

But either way, her breaths evened out as she held him close.

And when she finally fell asleep, she dreamed of cotton candy wisps in an empty black sky. 

-X-

Sero Hanta stared at his friends outside his dorm room door. 

Kaminari looked as tired as Hanta felt, but Kirishima was bright eyed and completely awake judging by the sharp knocks that had woken Hanta in the first place. 

Hanta yawned. “What the fuck?”

“C’mon,” Kirishima said, turning on a dime without waiting for Hanta or Kaminari. 

Hanta’s yawn spread to Kaminari, who promptly flipped him off as a thank you. 

They dragged their feet together into the hallway, meeting Kirishima where he held open the elevator, tapping his fingers along the metal. 

“Why are you guys up so early?” Hanta groaned, drawing out the end. 

“He won’t tell you,” Kaminari said. “I already asked.”

Kirishima let the door close once they were inside. “Like a hundred times. Chill. You’ll see in a sec.”

“See what?” 

Kirishima glared at Hanta. “I said you’ll see in a sec.”

Hanta grumbled under his breath, exchanging eyes with Kaminari. 

They stepped out of the elevator behind Kirishima and Hanta knew it was _way_ too early when the sun hadn’t even risen yet. How much sleep had any of them even gotten? They’d stayed up too long waiting for Bakugou to return last night to be awake at this time. 

But Kirishima was unbothered, leading the way. 

He slowed ahead of them as the corner of the elevator bay came near and both Hanta and Kaminari mimicked him. 

When they crossed into the common room, he immediately noticed Kouda and Tokoyami standing together awkwardly in a corner. Yaoyaorozu had her back pressed to the wall beside them as they passed, her fingertips drawn over her lips. 

Hanta looked at Kaminari, confused. 

However, Kaminari’s eyes were glued to the couch and Hanta followed them. 

At first, the blobs vaguely hidden beneath a green blanket seemed completely foreign, but then Hanta noticed the blonde hair sticking out in sharp points despite the tie holding it together.

“Is that…”

Kaminari nodded in his peripherals. 

Bakugou was a monster.

And he was shirtless, draped across Uraraka on the couch. 

At least, Hanta thought so considering all he could see of the girl was her head peeking out over Bakugou’s shoulder. And, respectfully speaking, Hanta was fully aware of Uraraka’s cuteness, but with her long hair sprawled out and her face peacefully, though dangerously, close to Bakugou’s, she looked…

Well, beautiful. 

But if he was seeing what he thought he was seeing he would never admit that realization out loud. That was a death sentence in itself. 

Then he heard the muffled sound of a sob and he finally noticed the ball of pink hair beside them. Mina was crouched on the floor, bent over on her knees and still in her pajamas. Her arms were crossed on a cushion for her chin to rest on as she _very_ creepily watched the pair sleeping from _way_ too close. 

Hanta looked to Kirishima, but his friend was already staring at him with wide eyes. 

“How haven’t they woken up yet?” Hanta asked quietly.

Yaoyaorozu looked over at them and whispered, “Ashido glares at anyone who makes a sound above a whisper.”

Hanta caught the eyes of Tokoyami and Kouda as they both nodded ominously. 

“Is she…” Kaminari started, not daring to look away. “Is Mina crying?”

Kirishima nodded, bringing a fist to his chest. 

“And I can’t even blame her,” he whispered. “Look at them.”

Mina’s face fell into her arms, her chest rocking before she dragged each of her cheeks against her wrists and looked up again. 

“Is this…” Hanta said. 

Kaminari dropped a hand on Hanta’s shoulder with a quick nod. 

“It’s soft Bakugou.”

A choking sound came from Kirishima and he held up a hand. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, turning and waving them off. “I need a minute.”

Tokoyami started through the room, his arms firmly crossed over his chest. Kouda moved to the kitchen, opening a cupboard slower than Hanta had ever seen anyone move. When Tokoyami passed by, he paused. 

“I think it would be wise to resume daily activities,” he said as he started again toward the elevators. “Lest you be present for the awakening of the beast.”

“Oh shit,” Kaminari said, turning to Hanta. “He’s right.”

Yaoyaorozu smoothly dipped out of the room, slinking across the wall and around the corner to the elevators. 

“Kirishima,” Hanta said, still watching the gentle rise and fall of Bakugou’s stupidly terrifying back muscles that peeked out from the covers. “Get your girlfriend. Let’s go.”

Kaminari elbowed him. 

“I think one of us is going to have to get Kirishima too.”

Hanta looked away from the couch, finding Kirishima off to the side a few paces with his hand still covering his mouth and a shine of unshed tears in his eyes. 

Hanta sighed. 

“Fuck, okay.”

The two boys turned back to their reluctant leader fast asleep, his arms wrapped around the girl a fraction of his size. 

A croaked cry sounded from Kirishima. 

Hanta looked at Kaminari.

“Dibs on Mina.”

-X-

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Endless, endless thank yous to everyone who reads this. I am so grateful to everyone who reaches out on Twitter and every single comment that I try to respond to as personally as possible. Your kudos and subscriptions and bookmarks are just ... so appreciated. Thank you to everyone who finds me on Twitter because of this and everyone who gushes with me about it. 
> 
> Thank you to Lorrin for always reading my work and sending screenshots of all your reactions. You are a goddess and I love you.  
> Thank you to Ray for proofreading this and giving me the go ahead to post when it was done. You're a saint and I'm so grateful for you. 
> 
> I'm just really grateful. I love this story. I love these characters. I love to write. 
> 
> And I love all of you!
> 
> Feel free to track me down on Twitter @jarynw02


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ochako and Katsuki go back at school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Errr be prepared this ended at 9452 words (post editing - for Twit ppl).
> 
> If I could name this chapter it would be called “Uraraka Rising”
> 
> The Playlist: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/74zd62EaLcLlXaynRMdnGU?si=nTFr5hCWQcCscExsNFhOCQ)

-X-

Ochako woke to a tickle on her neck. 

The familiar brush lit a sleepy grin touching at the corners of her cheeks. She took in a slow, deep breath under Katsuki’s weight and tangled her fingers into his hair at his nape, savoring the half-conscious moment. He nestled deeper into her shoulder until his lips fell on her skin for a quick press of a kiss. 

And then it was gone.

He raised off her, a chill nipping along her skin and she opened her eyes. 

He was propped up on his arms, head turned toward the kitchen.

Wait, the kitchen?

“Katsu,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from a deep sleep. Wincing and dragging the back of her hand under her nose, she looked up at Katsuki. “Are we in the--”

The sight of his death glare stopped her. Shifting, she pulled up to sit. He reluctantly leaned back to make room for her as she peered over the top of the couch. 

Kouda was staring intently at his breakfast sitting innocently on the table before him while a bright-eyed Aoyama had turned his chair to face them. He was bent over his crossed legs, batting his lashes and waving tinkling fingers across the room at Katuski. A floating pair of pajamas pushed back from the table and Ochako internally cringed watching Hagakure approach them.

Katsuki’s lip was curled so far up his cheek Ochako had to resist the urge to poke him until he calmed down. 

The pajamas reached the back of the couch before sinking until Ochako was sure the two girls were face to face. Swallowing, Ochako braced herself, imagining what Hagakure’s smirk might look like. 

“Welcome back, Uraraka.”

Ochako could hear the victory in her words.

“Hi Hagakure,” Ochako said, shifting underneath Katsuki who begrudgingly adjusted with her. She wrestled with her blush and tried not to look at the boys behind her. “You’re up early.”

“Well, when I heard there were love birds sleeping in the common room I had to see for myself, you know?” Hagakure said and Ochako forced herself to make what she hoped was invisible eye contact with her. “Priorities.”

“Oh, shut it, See Through,” Katsuki barked. 

One of Ochako’s hands immediately pressed against his bare chest and his face snapped to hers. She matched his glare until he grumbled and looked away before dropping his weight on her legs and nestling his face into her lap. His arms tightened around her waist and she sighed, hoping the gesture was out of Hagakure’s view. 

She also hoped Hagakure might not notice her fingers slipping back into his hair almost on a reflex. 

Ignoring the flashing alarm bells of the mention of others seeing them together on the couch, Ochako decided to ask, “What time is it?”

There was a pause and Ochako imagined Hagakure raising a skeptical brow. 

“Why, it’s nearly six, mon amie,” Aoyama’s sing-song voice danced from the kitchen, his eyes sparkling as he rested his chin in a palm on the tabletop. 

Katsuki’s head popped out of her lap, his expression the same one he had when they’d linger in bed until he felt a spark of inspiration that inevitably led them out into the void. 

Ochako sighed, already pulling her legs to stand even before Katsuki climbed off of her. She scratched behind her ear, ignoring her disheveled hair poking out at weird angles. Mornings had become easier after enough Katsuki ‘morning mode’ experiences, though she still struggled with the irritable urge to complain and crawl back under the covers. 

Luckily, this time she was motivated by getting as far away as possible from the way her classmates were looking at her. 

She looked back over her shoulder to, sure enough, find three pairs of eyes watching them step toward the hallway of elevators. Squeezing out a small grin, she offered them all a tight wave. 

“Well,” she said. “I, uh, guess we’ll see you guys in class?”

Aoyama tilted his head and Hagakure rose from her crouch beside the couch, her floating pajamas showing off a popped hip and crossed arms. 

“Sure thing,” Hagakure said, though Ochako only heard her distantly before she followed Katsuki into the elevator. Their arms touched idly in their shared space and his hand curled to hers. She dropped her head to his bicep as they ascended. 

Finally, she said, “Why are you on the girls’ elevator?”

His free hand snaked into her bedhead, quickly scrambling the mess and she backed away, slapping listlessly in his direction until he stopped. She frowned at his smirk. 

“We don’t have time for you to fix that if we’re going to get a good training in,” he said, stepping toward her. She jerked her chin away from him, but he slinked a hand around her waist and pulled her into him. “So I’ll do it for you.”

Ochako sighed, the warmth rising in her chest stowing her pout for now. She settled her forehead onto his chest. 

“Fine.”

Not fifteen minutes later they were on the roof, both in training clothes all too familiar to each other. Katsuki’s braid was tight on her scalp and tidy down her spine as it drifted softly in the gentle wind. Dawn rose behind them in the soft shades of morning, light spilling across the campus around them. 

Ochako raised her hands to her hips.

“This was your big idea?”

Katsuki’s grin was feral. He spread his arms wide and lifted a cocky brow. 

“What?” he said. “You not up for it, Cheeks?”

She scrunched her nose. 

“No,” she answered. “It’s just… _of course_ you would want to spar on the roof.”

He approached her slowly and she watched the predatory look overcome his red eyes. 

“I’m hearing a lot of talk and not seeing a whole lot of action,” he said, lowering his stance little by little as he neared. “You go and get soft on me now that we’re out in the real world?”

Ochako grit her teeth, settling into her own stance. Narrowing her eyes at him, she grinned.

“You wish.”

And then she dove in, charging head first into the most comfortable thing she could think of doing to calm any first day nerves. Another wave of gratitude rolled through her as she dodged, punched, ducked, and slid across the roof tiles. The challenge of the slope and the ease of her moves created a stillness in her heart and with every blow landed by either of them, she found herself smiling. 

The fight ended with the two of them sitting on the peak of the pointed roof, looking out over the crisp lawn. Katsuki swiped at his lip as if there was still blood dripping down his chin even though the swelling had already started to wane. Ochako nudged him with her elbow, covering her new bruise on the ribs beneath. 

“Need me to bandage that for you, hm?”

“Shaddup,” he groaned, knocking her right back and she swayed against him. 

A slow stretch of silence passed between them as they watched UA come to life below. 

Then Katsuki sucked in a breath and abruptly turned to grab her head and plant a kiss on the top of her sweaty hair. She raised a brow at him as he stood, but he only reached out a hand to help her stand. 

“Time for school.”

She stared at his outstretched hand for a moment, the creeping, inevitable separation turning her stomach. Still, she placed her hand in his.

But a shower and a failed attempt at fitting into her old school uniform later, she was back at Katsuki’s side, once again walking down the sidewalk outside of Heights Alliance. They’d both seemed to settle on the most basic of their training outfits, though their duffels were now replaced with their bookbags. Ochako tightened her grip on the single strap over her shoulder as they diverted their path toward the Support Department. 

“Ochako?”

She paused instantly, only realizing she and Katsuki had been touching when he stepped ahead of her. He stopped as well, scanning her face in that way he did before she turned.

“Tsu?” she said, releasing her hold on her bag. Her eyes widened. “Iida?”

The pair behind them smiled and Ochako’s heart warmed at the sight of Tsu with a large, genuine grin. They were both the same as the day she’d left, though Iida didn’t seem quite as large after getting used to Katsuki’s similar size. Still, Iida’s posture was perfect and proud -- Tsu’s eyes open and kind. Slowly, Ochako moved toward them until she couldn’t stop. She ran the last few steps before jumping on her friends with outstretched arms. 

“You guys,” she said, her voice muffled as the sharp fog of emotion crept up her throat. “I missed you.”

Tsu wrapped her in a hug and Iida settled an arm on her back. Ochako sucked in her too-heavy breaths, reminding herself that they’d seen her two days ago. 

They hadn’t missed her. 

Not like she’d missed them. 

She leaned away, giving them some space as she collected herself. 

“Sorry,” she said, swiping at her nose and looking up and away toward the light of the morning sun for a brief second. “It’s just… been a while for me.”

A gentleness filled Iida’s eyes and Tsu’s smile held across her froggy cheeks. 

“It’s alright, Ochako,” Tsu said. “We don’t understand the feeling, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about it.”

Iida nodded along with her. “And we value your presence! I think I can speak for the whole class when I say that we are glad you both have returned.” 

“But especially us, kero,” Tsu added with bright eyes. 

“Thanks guys.” Ochako swallowed the last bits of emotion sticking to her throat and shifted on her feet, smiling back at her friends. “It feels like we have so much to talk about… but I guess it’s really only been a day.”

Iida raised a hand to his chin. “Yes, I suppose you haven’t really missed much on our side of things. However, I imagine you and Bakugou both have plenty of stories for the rest of us.”

“Was it really a full year, kero?” 

Ochako looked to her friend and wondered if she’d always had to look down at her. 

“Yeah,” she said. “It was.”

“Oi.”

Katsuki’s voice was uncharacteristically low and when Ochako glanced at him over her shoulder, his eyes were bored, but soft. He looked away when she made contact and she turned back to her friends. 

“We have to go get fitted for new school uniforms,” she told them, tilting her head to the side. The new braid down her back slipped across her shoulder blade. “See you in class, though?”

Iida nodded once, quick and resolute while Tsu waved a hand. 

“Of course, kero.”

Ochako hopped a step to catch up to Katsuki who raised a brow at her lifted mood before continuing toward the entrance closest to the Support Department. She grinned and leaned into him for a moment before rocking away and reaching for the strap of her bag once more. 

“Happy?”

Her eyes widened and she looked up at him. 

“Yeah,” she said. “Very.”

He stared ahead, pulling open the door for them both to file inside. 

“Hn,” he said. “Good.”

The Support Department was bustling with the start of a new year. First years were always roaming the halls, even if they’d already had three days to settle in. Ochako walked in step with Katsuki who didn’t once bother to move for any passing students rushing from one classroom to the other. They darted out of the way the moment they laid eyes on him and Ochako wondered if it was his stature that seemed to frighten them or if they’d simply heard of Bakugou Katsuki. 

When a Support student with an arm full of books spilling with notes nearly knocked into Ochako’s side, Katsuki’s hand found her hip and tugged her close and out of the way. 

“Tch, idiots.”

“No.” Ochako adjusted beside him, looking at the boy over her shoulder as they turned a corner. “They’re just excited. This is all new to them.”

“Wrong, Cheeks,” Katsuki countered. “Didn’t see me fucking fumbling through the halls like that.”

“You’re right,” Ochako said with a hum and a finger to her chin, “but I would have loved to.”

Katsuki’s mouth popped open and his eyes darted to hers. 

“You’re evil.”

Ochako grinned and stuck her tongue out at him before he reached up and pinched one of her cheeks between two fingers. She swat his hand away with a yelp.

“Mean!” 

He folded his arms and turned back ahead. “Don’t start a fight you can’t finish, Ochako.”

She muttered to herself as they approached the Support Closet before finally daring to say, “Worth it.”

“What did you--”

“Oh look!” she said too loudly, grabbing the door handle. “We’re here.”

Katsuki stopped closer to her than she expected him to and looked down at her with narrowed eyes. He scanned her over for a heartbeat and then two before she started to feel the creeping heat of his nearness and unbroken stare. 

Finally, he sighed and relaxed away, offering her a little more space. Placing an arm over her head on the door frame, he said, “You’re going to be the death of me, I swear.”

Ochako bit her lip and reached for the hem of his shirt to play with idly as she looked up at him. “Sorry.”

“Nah,” he said with a small shake of his head. “I did want to talk to you before we go in though.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I was thinking and…” he trailed off, pushing away from the wall. He slipped his hands into his pockets and Ochako took a step toward him. 

“What is it?” she asked, moving closer toward his line of sight. 

His eyes slid toward her and he grumbled something under his breath. 

“Look, do what you want,” he said. “But I know we talked about a jetpack or something for you once and I think if you actually want to modify your suit now would be the time to do it.”

Her brows folded before she saw another few students passing by too close. She grabbed Katsuki’s elbow and pulled them back closer to the wall. 

“Yeah,” she said, letting him go. “I think that’s a good idea really.” 

“Tch. Of course it is,” he scoffed, looking back at the door. “Still, it’s your choice.”

Ochako pressed her lips into a thin grin and hummed an affirmative. 

Then a thought struck her. 

She brought her fingerpads together over her lap, tapping them in a rhythm. 

“Speaking of…” she started and he widened his eyes at her skeptically. “I was thinking, you know, if I’m asking Support for a propulsion system, then maybe… you could ask them for something to protect your ears.”

When he didn’t answer she cringed a little, but she forced her face to smooth over before he could see. 

“It doesn’t have to be an aide, but just something to protect your eardrums would be smart and--”

“No,” he said, his voice stern with finality and his eyes lost somewhere above her head. “Now let’s go, we’re running out of time.”

But when he stepped toward the door, Ochako slid in the way. 

“Please,” she said, holding out her arms to block his path. “Think about it? You know it’s the smart thing to do. Think about your career and--”

“I get the message, Cheeks,” he said, cutting her off. He looked down at her, his eyes locked and frozen on hers. “And I said no.”

She paused for a beat, his refusal sinking into her bones with a weight she both had and hadn’t expected. Then she nodded and stepped aside. 

Their visit with Support was mostly brief, though they were both fully measured before given a single set of their daily and training uniform clothes. The rest they’d have to pick up the next day once they were produced. Ochako asked about the hero suit modifications which their third year helper quickly jotted down. 

Katuski never said a word. 

So when they were steps from their classroom and minutes from the tardy chime, Ochako reached out for his wrist. He stopped on an instinct, leveling her with questioning eyes and she appreciated the softness that seemed to have slowly seeped back into them. 

“I didn’t mean--”

He silenced her with a grab of her hand. 

“You made a suggestion just like I did,” he said, lacing their fingers together. “Don’t be stupid.”

 _Don’t apologize,_ she translated to herself. 

Ochako smiled a weird smile that fought against her riddled brows. She nodded, blinking away the concern that had woven itself into her mind so many nights ago. 

“ _Bakugou!!_ ” 

Ochako dropped his hand, turning at the sound of Kirishima’s voice, which was apparently just in time before a blur of pink crashed into Katsuki. 

“Bakugou,” Mina cried. “You’re all grown up.”

“Get the fuck off me,” Katsuki snapped, wrestling to pry Mina’s arms from around his shoulders. “I fucking _swear_ if you don’t--”

“Uraraka, wow,” Kirishima said. He approached them from the end of the hall on quick feet, Kaminari and Jirou right behind him. “You look…” his eyes wavered over to Katsuki who was still fighting with Mina, though now they were bickering, “manly.”

“Um,” she said, “thanks? I think.”

“No, yeah, for sure,” Kirishima said, glancing back at Katsuki and Mina who were apparently now separated, though Mina was still standing too close and looking straight up at Katsuki with glistening eyes. He grinned at them and turned back to Ochako. “You’re like, super buff now. What the hell did you guys do in there?”

This caught Mina’s attention.

“Oh, I think _I_ know what they did in there…”

Kaminari snickered behind Kirishima and Jirou elbowed him. 

“Can you all just shut the fuck up for once in your pathetic lives?” Katsuki barked with a snarl curling his lip. “We’re gonna be late. Get out of our way.”

Mina latched a hand onto Kirishima’s forearm. “Did you hear that?”

Kirishima hummed, dipping his chin. 

“He’s so romantic, I--”

“For fuck’s sake,” Katsuki growled, shoving out an arm fast enough that Mina shut her mouth and the group backed off. He flicked his eyes over his shoulder at Ochako before moving toward the door. She followed him naturally, and with the others nearby, she realized for the first time that she almost felt a magnetism toward Katsuki. 

It was like everywhere she went, he would be there too. 

And everywhere he went, she would follow. 

A blush rose to her cheeks at the thought appearing while his closest friends were all watching and she lifted a wave over her shoulder, giving them an apologetic smile. 

The sea of faces already inside was overwhelming. Ever since the crowded Support Department halls, Ochako had been refusing to acknowledge the quaking thing in her chest at being surrounded by so many others for the first time in so long. It was surreal to step into the four walls of her old classroom, to let herself be enclosed with this many people. And yet, there was a distant familiarity with her old friends who all cheered a little as she found her way to her desk with Katsuki. 

Deku was there. He saw her and an emotion she couldn’t name crossed his eyes before he smiled and offered her a welcome that she readily returned as she passed. She wasn’t sure what was going on between them now, but he seemed to be trying to normalize their friendship and she was more than prepared to do the same.

The pressure slowly settled and she found herself beaming at the sight of Todoroki who waved back at her in greeting before she slipped into her seat. With the last of them filed in, the desks filled and Aizawa-Sensei entered the room. 

“Alright,” Aizawa-Sensei started. Kirishima leaned back in his chair beside Ochako, shooting her a grin that felt a little too intentional. She raised her brows in a returning smile before refocusing on their teacher. “A few announcements today.”

He levelled a glare directly at Mina.

“I know you’re excited but keep your outbursts outside of class time.”

Mina jerked forward in her seat. “Sensei! I didn’t even say anything!” 

“You were thinking it.”

“Not true!”

Kaminari chuckled across the room. “Yeah, right.”

Iida’s hand shot up, the other steadying himself on his desk counter. “Please! Everyone! Remain quiet so Aizawa-Sensei can continue.”

“Well.” Kirishima scratched his shoulder idly. “They kinda were quiet, but you’re pretty loud, Iida.”

“I--”

“Idiots,” Katsuki snapped and Ochako felt the end of her braid pick up off the back of her seat. “Shaddup already!”

The classroom stilled and chills curled over Ochako’s skin as Katsuki twirled her braid through his fingers. Aizawa scanned the room, waiting for anyone else who might speak up before sighing. He adjusted his weight with the bend of a knee and continued. 

“First off, you all have noticed Uraraka and Bakugou have returned,” he said, his eyes roaming the class. “I know many of you will be curious about their experience in the time chamber, but keep your interrogations outside of my class and pressure them at your own risk.”

Ochako’s head tipped at that and she couldn’t help but feel like his words made her sound like a threat. Though, she supposed, he was probably referring to Katsuki who was still toying with her hair, his face resting in his palm propped up with an elbow on his desk. 

She tried to remember a time before the chamber when he was threatening… and found a small smile crawling up her cheeks instead. 

“Second: They have an event related to the company that hosts the time chamber on Saturday,” Aizawa-Sensei went on. “This is a big opportunity for the rest of you. There will not only be sponsors for Kami-Po Industries present, but a group of pro heroes who have shown interest in the use of the chamber. Those that participate will be watched closely and this could further open doors for your futures.”

He paused, waiting to see if any unruly hands might pop up before continuing. 

“Six of you will join Uraraka and Bakugou on Stage Day. Kami-Po Industries will be sending representatives tomorrow afternoon to determine who will qualify, so we will be adjusting our class schedule to fit in the hero course two days in a row,” he said, raising his chin as he surveyed their reactions. “The eight of you will miss classes on Saturday, though you will be required to catch up on any material covered. This event is meant to highlight the capabilities of the time chamber, but I suggest all who qualify use this opportunity to their utmost advantage.”

Ochako tapped her fingers on her desk quietly and wondered whether Katsuki felt the same sort of spotlight that she did. A crackling energy filled her chest that was both foreign and familiar. 

A challenge. 

Maybe she didn’t mind the spotlight quite like she used to. 

In fact, the idea of proving herself -- of showing everything she’d worked so hard for -- well, it energized her. She curled her hand into a fist, letting a slow grin slide onto her face. 

Maybe this would be fun. 

Katsuki dropped her braid and she felt him lean away from her, his shoes sliding across the floor to the corners of her chair. 

Aizawa-Sensei raised a lazy brow. 

“Any questions?”

A few hands rose, including Deku’s, and Aizawa-Sensei spoke again.

“Keep in mind, Kami-Po Industries is fully hosting Stage Day and determining all of its factors. I don’t have information on their qualifiers or specific events.”

The hands fell slowly, one at a time.

Aizawa-Sensei sucked in a deep breath. 

“Good,” he said. “Then we can continue on with class. Everyone, pay attention.”

But then a low voice called out.

“Aizawa-Sensei.”

All eyes turned to Todoroki, including Aizawa-Sensei’s. 

The teacher raised a skeptical brow. “Yes?”

“Is participation mandatory?”

A gasp clipped through the air and Deku spun in his seat. 

“Todoroki!” he said, clutching the back of his chair. “This is a showcase for the pros! It’ll be good to--”

Aizawa-Sensei lifted a hand over the class and Deku turned back in his seat, visibly biting his tongue from continuing. 

“Yes,” Aizawa-Sensei said. “This is not an optional event for this class. No one can sit out just because. If you’d like, I can grade you on your performance as well.”

Todoroki eyed their teacher for a moment before tilting his head, his hair spilling across his face and exposing more of his scar. “No, it’s fine.”

Aizawa-Sensei held eye contact for a breath longer before turning to the board. 

“Whatever,” he said, reaching for a marker. “Let’s get started.”

Ochako opened her notes with determination, but after the first class she was struggling to remember the vague lessons from over a year ago. She felt lucky that the time chamber experience had happened so early in the school year so that they were still somewhat reviewing, but by the end of their second class she was shuffling around her mental schedule trying to decide when to fit in extra study time. Hopefully Iida would share his notes and maybe she could ask Momo if she could make a copy of her color-coded flash cards like she had for exams last year. 

When the third class was finally coming to a close, Ochako was vibrating in her seat. 

How had she ever been able to sit still for so long?

Normally, she’d have already finished at least four hours of training by now. Her energy stirred, pulsing through her restless limbs with an impatient itch. Katsuki seemed to feel a similar eagerness to move. He’d constantly adjust in his seat behind her, draping himself over his work and sliding back to tap at her chair with his shoes in a too-fast rhythm more times than she could count. 

She felt the clawing frustration in a way she hadn’t experienced outside of the constant struggle of the void. 

But, _fuck_ , she wanted to _move_. 

When the lunch bell chimed, she jumped out of her seat. The class turned to her, Kirishima looking up at her with a broad smile. 

“Hungry?” he said with a teasing lilt. 

“Uh, er,” she stammered back as others rose around her, little by little. “Yeah.”

She brushed at her cheek with the back of her hand to cover her blush as she tucked her things into a locker at the back of the classroom. The weight of Katsuki’s presence followed her and she moved for the door with the assurance that he was close behind. He touched at the small of her back and she turned to look up at him. 

He glanced down at her before returning his eyes straight ahead and dropped his hand.

She smiled at him and leaned her shoulder into his side as they walked, making him teeter midstep beside her. 

And then an arm looped around his neck, dragging him down to Kirishima’s height. 

“Shitty Hair,” Katsuki growled, tugging himself free in a jerking motion. 

Ochako giggled through her hand at the sight. 

“It’s cool to see…”

Her face slackened and she turned to see Deku falling into step beside her. He grinned sheepishly, tucking a hand to the back of his neck. 

“I just mean,” he said, glancing over at Katsuki who was now bickering with both Kirishima and Mina, “that it’s interesting to see Kacchan with you.”

Something stiff and jagged crawled into her joints and she looked ahead toward the cafeteria doors. 

“It’s not a bad thing!” Deku went on, raising his hands. “It’s… a good thing, actually. I’ve known Kacchan a long time and I’ve never seen him… Well, I’ve seen him tolerate people, but never really seem to _enjoy_ being around someone before.”

Ochako took a few more steps, listening to the growing argument between Katuski and his friends who were now joined by Kaminari and Sero. Then she turned back to Deku.

“It’s weird, you know?” she said and Deku’s eyes widened curiously. “It’s weird that the only thing that’s normal to me right now is Kat--” she paused, a thick blush rising over her cheeks. 

Deku’s features smoothed. “It’s okay, Uraraka. Really. We’re still best friends, right?”

She huffed a dry laugh and looked between Deku and Katsuki as they all stepped into the lunchroom. 

“Yeah,” she said, smiling. “We are.”

They found the line and joined it together in a wad of friends. 

“Thanks, Deku,” she said finally, bouncing on her toes from one foot to the other. “It’s been… weird coming back. It’s nice to know that we can be normal after everything.”

He watched her for a moment then blinked. “You’ve changed, you know?”

Ochako raised a brow, a slice of something sharp falling down her throat. 

“Yeah?”

Deku nodded.

“In a good way,” he said. “It’s like… you’re calmer. More sure. I’m a little jealous, to be honest, but I think seeing you this way has helped me.”

They moved along with the lunch line and Ochako ignored a rogue shout from Katuski about leaving him the fuck alone and finding their own place to sit.

“It’s been weird, being back,” Ochako told him. “It really was a full year, you know? Everything was normal and it was just me and Katsuki and now…” she sighed. “I could _barely_ keep up with Present Mic’s grammar review! It’s ridiculous! And-- do you know the last time I sat still for that long? Basically a year ago!”

Deku chuckled as they stepped up to the food counter.

“And you don’t even want to know what we _ate_ in there,” she continued, eyeing the selections through the glass covering. “I am so excited for real food, oh my gosh.”

“Get as much as you want,” Deku said, smiling at her. “I’ll buy.”

“What?!” she chirped, her braid swinging to hit Katsuki’s back as she whipped her head to Deku. “No! You don’t have to do that!” 

“It’s fine,” Deku answered, waving his hands. “Really.”

Ochako sighed, noticing Katsuki glance at her in her peripherals. 

“Thanks, Deku.”

Deku smiled. “I’m glad you’re back, Uraraka.”

She remembered all their study sessions last year, all their shared texts over break. 

And she smiled too. 

“I’m glad to be back.”

She scoured her lunch choices, finally deciding on the most filling bowl of noodles and a few sides, but refusing to take a dessert. Their group filed away from the check out and when Ochako looked toward her usual table with Iida, Tsu, and the others, she noticed it was empty. Frowning, she turned to Deku.

He laughed lightly and pointed to another side of the cafeteria where Bakugou usually sat with his friends. 

Iida, Tsu, Shinsou and Todoroki were seated with Jirou and Momo. 

A softness expanded in Ochako’s chest. 

They’d combined two nearby tables, disrupting that corner of the cafeteria, but knowing Momo and Iida, they’d cleared it with any staff who might question them. 

Ochako walked beside Katsuki, tilting up her chin to look at him. He eyed the new seating arrangement and grumbled. 

“Idiots.”

They all settled into their seats, Ochako finding a place between Katsuki and Deku. Tsu grinned at her with a mouthful of her katsudon. Shinsou sat quietly between her and Todoroki who looked up from his noodles at Ochako and Deku across from him. Kaminari sat next to Jirou who promptly elbowed him while Kirishima and Mina stayed as close to Katsuki’s side as possible to his dismay. 

The tension didn’t thicken for a whopping five minutes, but Ochako should have known it was inevitable. 

“Okay, so,” Mina started, pressing both hands on the table with a quick slam that drew everyone’s attention. “I think we have waited long enough.”

Ochako stared down at her food, swirling the chunks of pork in her bowl with her chopsticks. 

“Oh?” Iida said. “For what?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea--” Deku said slowly. 

“Oh, c’mon,” Sero interrupted. “You can’t tell me you’re not curious.”

“Uraraka probably already told him everything,” Kaminari said, still chewing. 

Iida turned to Ochako, gears turning in his head. 

Kirishima looked between her and Deku.

“You think so?” Kirishima asked, scratching his face.

Todoroki scoffed. “When would she have been able to do that?”

“Well, it’s her business if she’s opened up about the time chamber to anyone,” Tsu said, raising a finger to her chin. “And Sensei told us they would return yesterday evening, so whatever she did last night is up to her.”

Katsuki’s leg knocked against Ochako’s under the table and she choked a little, turning some shade of red.

“Oho?” Mina said, leaning forward over her tray. “Do you really think she was talking to Deku last night, Tsu?”

Kaminari and Kirishima shared a conspiratory glance. 

“Look,” Iida started, painting his tone with officiality. “Just because we’re curious about it, doesn’t mean we can--”

“Did you like the lava lamp, guys?” Kaminari jutted in, a shit-eating grin across his face. 

Mina’s eyes went wide and Sero covered his laugh with a hand. 

Deku frowned, looking past Ochako to where Kaminari and Sero were exchanging a high five. 

“You guys gave them a lava lamp?” Deku asked. “Really?”

“Oh,” Kirishima said. “It was a little more than a lava lamp.”

Ochako grit her teeth, staring down at her food and trying her best not to react too much. Katsuki’s tray suddenly slid closer to hers and she snuck a look up to him. His face was surprisingly steady as he met her eye before he moved a chopstick to slice his dessert in half. In a quick movement, he picked up the smaller piece and popped it in his mouth. 

She looked down at the baked good and Katsuki raised his hand to the table beside it. Crossing two fingers, he shook them just like she had the night before and her heart stopped. Cutting her eyes back to his, he raised a brow, waiting for her answer. 

Snatching the dessert in her chopsticks, she threw it into her mouth at the same time that Katsuki rose from the table. 

“Well,” he said. “This sucked. Bye.”

Ochako spluttered a laugh, forcing herself to swallow her food before following him. 

“Um,” she said, the pink in her cheeks thickening as everyone turned to look at her. “We’ll see you back in class I guess.” She turned to Deku. “Thanks for lunch.”

Deku nodded with a smile. 

“Hey!” Mina shouted, sliding back from her seat. “Where do you think you guys are going?”

Ochako watched Katsuki’s back as he walked away before looking over at Mina with a lopsided smile she knew the other girl would call her out on later.

“I don’t know.”

Whatever they said in return faded into the background with all the other cafeteria noise as Ochako scrambled to catch up to Katsuki just as he pushed open a side door of the lunch room. They stepped through together and Katsuki slipped his hand into hers, pulling her down the hall toward their classroom.

“I really thought you were gonna blow up on them,” Ochako said, squeezing his fingers. 

Katsuki huffed. “Waste of energy.”

“Oh?” she said, teasingly. He led her through the halls and toward the stairwell that would take them back up to the second year’s floor. “Need your energy for something else?”

His eyes flashed to her, the corners of his lips upturning as he shoved open the door and yanked her inside. He pressed her against the wall, keeping out of sight of the small window fitted above the door’s handle. She leaned her head back to look up at him as he surrounded her with both hands on either side of her face, towering over her. 

“I wanted to train,” he said, his voice low. He curved his spine, burying his face in her neck and she moved to open for him as his lips pressed down on the thin skin. 

“But?” she asked, breathless. 

His teeth grazed her collarbone. 

“But you always gotta tease me,” he growled, kissing a path back up to her ear and down her jaw. 

“Mmm,” she hummed, “I can’t tell if you’re complaining.”

His lips hovered over hers, his red eyes scanning her face. 

“Never.”

They broke apart countless minutes later at the first sounds of movement in the halls, choosing to turn the stair climb into a race before taking their time returning to class. The others filtered in behind them and with each newcomer, Ochako checked to see who it was from where she had turned her seat to face Katsuki’s. By the time they’d bickered about whether Katsuki would ever let her braid his hair that he still kept pulled back in a headband, the bell had chimed and Aizawa-Sensei was entering and announcing the hero course. 

“Today we will be combining rescue and combat,” he said, looking out over the eager students. Ochako was practically bouncing in her seat, resisting the urge to look back at Katsuki to see if he shared her excitement for some action. Aizawa-Sensei went on, “Each match is between two pairs, set to either side of Gamma Gym. You’ll race to the civilian dummy at the gym’s center. The first pair to successfully retrieve the dummy and return it to their side of the gym without injuring it wins. Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Kaminari said before he’d fully raised his hand. “Are Uraraka and Bakugou gonna be a pair? Because I would like to _live_.”

“If you can’t handle it Dunce Face, go home,” Katsuki shot off across the room.

Mina turned in her chair. “I mean, there will be ten pairs, Kami. Maybe you won’t have to go against them?”

“We should all be prepared to face any opponent!” Iida said formally. “This will be good practice.”

Ojiro perked up in his seat. “And you don’t even know how much stronger they are, really.”

“And you might end up with one of them on your team,” Kirishima added.

Kaminari balked, bringing a hand to his chest. “That’s even worse! You think Bakugou isn’t gonna kill me if he’s put on my team?”

“Wanna find out, Sparky?” Katsuki snapped, raising a crackling palm and the class quieted.

Aizawa-Sensei sighed. 

“Alright, I’ll announce your pairs on site,” he told the class, meeting their eyes one by one. “Meet in Gamma Gym in fifteen minutes.”

After fighting the crowd, Ochako tucked her things back into a locker, grabbing her new training uniform, and found Tsu for the walk to the locker rooms before they changed in silence.

This would be the first time she trained in front of anyone but Katsuki in over a year. She tried to remember the last time she’d done any sort of heroics in front of the class and fell short. Even her last day patrolling with her internship felt fuzzy. Expectations coated her throat crawling to her belly, thick and sticky like spoiled honey as they made their way to Gamma Gym, joining up with others from the class on the way. 

She chewed her lip as they followed the sidewalk in rows, her eyes darting from classmate to classmate. Slowly, she realized that most of them were watching Katsuki who’d been one of the first to finish changing. He was dragging his pace now and she knew he was waiting for her to catch up. She scanned the faces of her classmates, eyes trained on Katsuki’s back and something sparked inside her.

Were all their expectations only for Katsuki?

Did no one expect anything from her too?

She thought back to those first days of the time chamber, back to when she felt Katsuki was light years ahead of her. What had she expected of herself back then? She’d spent weeks just learning to stand on equal ground with him. When had her perspective shifted from keeping up to charging forward without worrying about where Katsuki was? When had she stopped thinking about her friends’ advice to learn from Katsuki and started learning from herself? When did she stop comparing herself and start challenging herself?

If they weren’t expecting much from her, that was fine, she decided. Clenching a fist at her side, she thought of the feeling of soaring off Katsuki’s back in zero-g and a smile curved the corners of her lips. Even if no one thought of her as more than a girl in the shadow of Class 2a, if no one expected greatness from her -- she would expect it from herself. 

She released her fist and bound forward, her smile stretching across her cheeks. Weaving through the few classmates ahead of her, she called out, “Ready?!”

Faces turned to her from all sides, but Katsuki didn’t falter ahead of them all. 

She closed the distance, launching off a single leg mid-run. His arms opened naturally as she slammed into his back, hooking her legs around his waist and latching her hands beneath his collar.

A victorious _whoop_ and a whistling cat call rang out behind them. 

Katsuki peeked at her over his shoulder.

“Was that really necessary?” he asked low enough so the others wouldn’t hear. 

She leaned toward his face. “Why? Feeling shy?”

“Oh, fuck you,” he grumbled, his eyes widening before she even opened her mouth for her comeback — as if he’d realized the setup he’d just handed her. 

She grinned. “Again? Already?”

“Shaddup,” he growled, hiking her higher up his back as they led the way to Gamma Gym. 

The gym was bare, lacking the terrain Cementoss often added for their training. Ochako hopped off Katsuki’s back before they stepped inside, sparing the waiting Aizawa-Sensei from seeing the impromptu piggy-back ride. Everyone filed in behind them, Deku, Todoroki and Iida all coming to Ochako’s side. Katsuki crossed his arms, shifting his weight as he surveyed the gym and Ochako followed suit. 

A blank dummy was set flat on the ground at the center of the gym, nothing else to be seen in the expansive space. She studied the walls, checking for any sort of footholes or slick spots and finding nothing noticeable on either side. 

“Okay,” Aizawa-Sensei said, drawing the class’ attention toward him. “You know what’s going on. Remember the priority is rescue; Combat is secondary in this mission.”

Ochako lifted her chin, straightening her spine. 

“First up, Shouji and Hagakure against Kaminari and Satou.”

The first two matches passed by slower than Ochako had anticipated. In the first set, none of her classmates were all that specialized in speed and where Shouji and Hagakure generally held the stealth cards, in the exposed layout of the open gym they were left somewhat unguarded. Ochako stayed on her toes in the small crowd, watching every second of Kaminari and Satou’s narrow victory. 

When the second match was announced, adrenaline started to prickle against her chest. Katsuki was a statue at her side, even when Deku stepped up to join Ojiro as his teammate against Mina and Kouda. She watched Deku hold back, only sparking his quirk to life when Mina had closed in on him on her lightning fast path of acid. Ochako surveyed the remainder of the class, counting down her potential opponents with a restless tapping of her fingers against her thigh. 

And then it was the third match. 

“Asui and Todoroki, to one side,” Aizawa-Sensei said as Ojiro and Kouda regained their bearings and joined in with the others again, coming to Ochako’s side. “Tokoyami and Bakugou to the other.”

Katsuki’s gaze immediately snapped to Tokoyami’s and Ochako watched him walk away from her to join his teammate. He was so much bigger than Tokoyami now, but the sharp, analytical glint in both their eyes was the same. Katsuki and Tokoyami headed straight for the east wall, Katsuki’s head bent to Tokoyami the whole time.

Ochako considered what Katsuki might think of to combat both Todoroki and Tsu -- arguably the best match up for a rescue and combat mission so far. She folded her arms over her chest as Deku approached her, taking Katsuki’s place. 

“Kacchan and Tokoyami are at a disadvantage,” Deku said quietly, his eyes glued to the two teams, lingering on Todoroki and Tsu as they each placed a hand against the west wall. “Kacchan’s explosions will stunt Dark Shadow.”

“I know,” Ochako said, staring at Katsuki desperately trying to read his lips that she could barely see moving. She felt Ojiro’s eyes fall on her and linger for a moment before he looked back to the impending match with Kouda. 

Aizawa-Sensei turned to the painted court separating the two pairs and raised a hand.

“Begin.”

Ice cracked over the gym floor and Tsu was swinging to the north wall with her tongue in a blink. Todoroki surfed along his quirk as it grew, expanding until the entirety of the lined court was frozen solid. 

But Tokoyami seemed to be just as quick.

He burst forward through the air in a cloak of Dark Shadow’s presence, his quirk monster charging full speed ahead for Todoroki while his eyes slipped to Tsu swinging to his left. Katsuki stood in place, his hand still against the east wall, even as ice raced across the floor to surround his feet and crawl up his ankles. Dark Shadow expanded as he and Tokoyami approached the dummy, Todoroki closing in on the prize. A midnight arm stretched out, Dark Shadow’s wingspan crossing the width of the gym as the beast roared.

Tsu latched onto the wall with amphibian fingers, her tongue popped out of her mouth at the ready for her team’s next move. Todoroki raised the dummy on a block of ice, shaping the platform to curve back to him. The dummy slid, gliding along to meet Todoroki as he crossed the last few meters that separated them. 

Dark Shadow’s arm dropped.

It crashed down between Todoroki and their target, shattering all the surrounding ice. Ochako’s brows shot up. She glanced at Deku before snapping her eyes back to the action, but when she expected Dark Shadow’s wing to curl around the dummy, it flung back the opposite direction. Todoroki was thrown away, collapsing into another wave of ice that caught him just before he slammed into the west wall where he started.

Tokoyami landed in front of the dummy as it skidded to a stop against his ankles. 

Tsu’s tongue darted to the ceiling, preparing to swing over Dark Shadow, but the second wing was already there, smacking her swiftly back where she came from. The massive wing didn’t stop it’s momentum, curving back behind Tokoyami and dropping swiftly to the gym floor. A shattering crack echoed around them as the ice floor fell to pieces. 

Todoroki stood, his face morphing into a sneer Ochako could see clearly across the gym. He swiped his sleeve beneath his nose before raising a hand. 

His left hand. 

Flame burst to life in his palm, but Dark Shadow persisted. Fanning out its wings, Tokoyami held his position firm, covering the west half of the gym in darkness lit only by the beginnings of Todoroki’s quirk. An inhuman shriek cried out of Dark Shadow and Todoroki built the fire in his hand, shouting something at Tokoyami that Ochako couldn’t make out. 

Todoroki twisted his wrist, shoving his hand up to Dark Shadow and a beam of flame shot forward as fast as Ochako could blink. 

And just as fast, Dark Shadow shrank away, disappearing into nothing at Tokoyami’s back.

Tsu flung herself down from the wall, landing just behind Tokoyami who shifted his position to see both his opponents. But when Tsu fell into her bend, reaching for the dummy while Todoroki lit a second ball of fire in his palm, the dummy was gone. 

A wide smile split Ochako’s face as she watched Katsuki take the last, quirkless steps to the east wall.

With the dummy tossed over his shoulder.

His fingers touched down and Todoroki dropped his hands. 

“The winners are Tokoyami and Bakugou.”

The class stood in silence while Tokoyami crossed his arms and moved to return to the group just as Katsuki turned to walk the dummy back to its place at the gym’s middle. Tsu watched Katsuki with wide eyes as he passed her, flopping the dummy on the concrete with a thud. He moved back into the crowd of the class, finding Ochako immediately and Ojiro shifted beside her to make room for him. 

Her grin at his win remained and when he looked down at her she raised a brow. 

“My quirk would have made his useless,” Katsuki said with a shrug, turning to face Aizawa-Sensei. “I’m more useful without my quirk than he is.”

“Wow, Kacch--”

“Did I fucking ask you, Deku?”

“Nope,” Deku said quickly, popping his lips shut.

Ochako pat her friend’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Deku,” Ochako said. “He’s just extra grumpy after being nice.”

“The fuck did you say, Cheeks?” Katuski snapped, looking down at her. 

She broadened her smile, aiming it straight for him. 

“You heard me.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Devil woman.”

“Okay then,” Aizawa-Sensei said as Tsu and Todoroki crossed the line of the court, reentering the group of students. “Fourth match is Shinsou and Yaoyaorozu against Jirou and Aoyama. Take your positions.”

The pairs moved to their opposite walls, preparing their strategies as they walked. Ochako scanned the remaining members of the class, ticking off who’d already gone and who would be left for her round. Bodies shifted around her and then a hand clapped on her back.

“You ready for this, Uraraka?” Kirishima said, his voice bright. 

Katsuki scowled at him over his shoulder. 

Ochako gave him a small smile. “Yep. You?”

“Definitely!” Kirishima said as Aizawa-Sensei started the match. “We’re gonna make such a great team.”

Ojiro pulled his eyes away from the court on Katuski’s other side. “Kirishima, you don’t know that you’ll be on her team.”

“She’s gonna kick your ass, Shitty Hair,” Katsuki spat, keeping his sights on the match. 

Kirishima’s lip poked out. “Hey, we could be on the same team.”

“Kirishima,” Ochako said. “Let’s just wait and see.”

He huffed behind her. “Fine.”

The match turned into a brawl at the center of the court, Momo producing a staff for herself and a duplicated scarf for Shinsou but they ended up spending most of their energy dodging Aoyama’s laser. Jirou wrestled with Shinsou’s scarf for the dummy, while Aoyama tried to free her with haphazard blasts that eventually nicked the dummy, resulting in an injury that failed them and ended the match. 

The four of them dropped their chins and dragged their feet back to the rest of the class. 

“Okay, last match,” Aizawa-Sensei said, completely ignoring their pouting. 

Ochako stepped forward, her face determinedly forward. 

This was her moment. 

This would be her first chance to show everything she’d learned -- how much she’d grown. 

It all came down to this race.

She just had to be fast enough.

“Uraraka and Sero to one side,” Aizawa-Sensei said, lazily looking over the class.

Ochako found Sero who smiled at her and offered an eager thumbs up. They were already moving toward the east wall when Aizawa-Sensei named their opponent.

“Kirishima and Iida to the other.”

-X-

  
  


Uraraka was a lot of things since surfacing from the time chamber, at least as far as Ojiro Mashirao had noticed. She wasn’t the same ball of nerves she was two days ago. Things that would normally bring her to a blushing mess slipped right off her and she seemed to always be one of the first to move now. 

Still, she wasn’t fast enough to beat Iida.

There was no way. 

Mashirao crossed his arms as he lingered behind Bakugou, sliding his eyes to Midoriya in his peripherals. He wondered what they thought about this match up, knowing that the two were both bound to have their opinions. 

Uraraka walked close to Sero as they approached the east wall and she checked over her shoulder for Iida and Kirishima just once. Both teams seemed to guard their strategizing carefully despite the distance spreading between them. 

“Man,” Kaminari said, stepping up between Mashirao and Midoriya. “I’d hate to be against the guy with engines in his legs in a race.”

Mashirao nodded idly, but Midoriya turned his cheek toward them, keeping his eyes ahead. 

“Actually, there are a few ways that Uraraka and Sero could still win.”

“Tch,” Bakugou scoffed ahead of them. “Obviously.”

“Uh,” Kaminari said, his face folding with skepticism. “Enlighten me, because I can’t see anyone beating Iida in a sprint to the middle.”

“Sero’s tape just needs to be faster,” Midoriya said. “And they might even be able to throw Uraraka in zero gravity with it, though I’m not sure it would make it in time that way.”

Bakugou looked over his shoulder, mouth parted and brows drawn as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. 

“Idiots,” he scoffed, facing forward again. “All of you.”

Mashirao’s eyes widened and he found himself following Uraraka’s every movement as she pulled up an ankle at a time, stretching with one hand against the wall. The pairs settled in their starting positions and Aizawa-Sensei surveyed them before raising his hand like he had for every other match.

“Begin.”

The sound of Iida’s engines revving filled the room, but Mashirao couldn’t take his eyes off Uraraka.

He was glad he didn’t.

She dropped to her hands, too close to the wall, but she picked up her legs in an instant, crouching on the concrete. Almost like she was in a pool, she kicked off the wall.

And then she was flying. 

Uraraka shot across the room, Iida doing the same with sparks of blue littering out behind his every step. Mashirao’s lips popped open as he waited for her to dive for the dummy. She and Iida were closing in on it fast -- there was no way he’d be able to tell who…

But then Uraraka was shifting through the air, tucking her legs in and bringing them forward. She reached the dummy first by less than a second, but she didn’t stop. Instead she crashed directly into Iida’s chest, crouching on him like she’d just done on the east wall. Her hands fell to his shoulders at the same time that she kicked off him once more, completely reversing her direction. 

Iida’s weight left him when Uraraka did. 

His thrusters swung him off the ground, inverting him and sending him into a loop of unstoppable spirals. 

But Kirishima was hot on their tails. 

Mashirao checked for Sero, but he was still at the wall, his hand in the same place where he’d started. 

Uraraka dove for the dummy, rolling across the ground with it held tight to her chest, its head cradled in one of her hands. Kirishima was close behind. He ran for her at full speed, raising both hands and sharpening them into weapons. 

Uraraka stopped on her back, the dummy splayed out on top of her. Just before Kirishima could pounce, she shoved the dummy straight up in the air. Weightlessly, it zoomed past Kirishima’s face, his eyes following it as his mouth fell open. 

“ _Now!_ ”

Tape shot across the room at the sound of Uraraka’s voice and in a breath the dummy was in Sero’s arms safely, his hand having never left the place where it started. 

The gym was silent.

Seconds. 

That took _seconds_.

“What the fuck.”

Mashirao couldn’t make himself respond to Kaminari even if he wanted to. Instead, he watched as Uraraka snapped up from the gym floor, wincing with sympathy as she released Iida and the dummy from their lack of gravity. She turned to Sero to give him a winning thumbs up just like he’d given her before the match.

Approximately one minute ago. 

Aizawa-Sensei announced Uraraka and Sero the winners and Uraraka turned back toward the class, grinning from ear to ear. 

Her eyes seemed to land on Bakugou’s and they softened.

But then her smile faded, her hand rising to her temple.

She frowned, her features crumpling slowly as her lips parted and Bakugou edged forward in front of Mashirao until he was moving steadily toward her, breaking out in a run. 

She looked back up at him and took a step.

And then she dropped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *evil laugh*


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the hero course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM ALIVE. 
> 
> Chapter Playlist: [Here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/71cLZucJ06O1bYyOniGQKy?si=PMcllQsqRvCEj8fJJz0sgQ)

-X-

Ochako knew that Katsuki caught her without having to see him. 

There was no way she wouldn’t recognize the feeling of being in his arms, the way her head fell into his chest as if there was a spot carved out there just for her. Even the sound and depth of his breaths were familiar. She turned into the hard muscle encasing his shoulder, pinching her eyes shut as she waited for this feeling to pass.

This ringing. 

It felt almost like…

The void. 

But it was all in her head -- the spinning of the room, the ominous echoing wind that closed in around her. 

Aizawa-Sensei was kneeled beside Katsuki when she cracked open her eyes. He scanned her face as she blinked away the fog. Nausea, like she hadn’t felt in months, was slowly rising in her throat and she winced. Aizawa-Sensei looked to Katsuki. 

“Take her to--”

“I got it,” Katsuki snapped. His hands snaked around her, thick and impenetrable against her weak protests that only earned her slanted eyes cast impatiently down at her. She rose along with him as he stood and they moved, floating steadily across the room in a grounded way so contrasting to her quirk. The prickling of watching eyes nipped at the back of her neck, but she didn’t turn to meet the stares of her classmates, wary of both their curiosity and their concern. 

She’d expected Katsuki to lighten up when they passed through the double-doored threshold, but instead rough fingers pressed into her skin over the fabric of her athletics uniform. The temperature around them rose as he steered them through the halls and his familiar hair-trigger rage skimmed over her in warm, festering waves. By the time she mustered the courage to look up at him, he was glowering at the white tiles ten steps ahead of them with poorly hidden fury twitching at a corner of his nose. Cinching a piece of her bottom lip between her teeth, she hunched into his hold and waited until the flag of the nurse’s office was poised above her head to touch two fingers to his shoulder.

“I can stand,” she said quietly.

Red eyes lasered to her, his brows frowning for a moment as he scanned her face before dropping an arm until her feet fell firmly on the ground in soft taps. He stood stiff and straight at her side, an almost tangible aura around him that screamed back-the-fuck-off which Ochako hadn’t experienced in months. 

Was he… 

Was he disappointed in her?

She couldn’t let herself pause for more than a breath before reaching out for the pristine silver handle of Recovery Girl’s room, letting the cold bite into her fingers as she pushed open the door in a move that hopefully disguised her unease. 

First the dizziness, then Katsuki’s bristling. 

A weary head of grey hair nested atop a small, old woman turned to them slowly. Narrow eyes hinted at little surprise as they scanned her from head to toe, a gentleness around her mouth that belied the gradually darkening brows coming to frown at her. Recovery Girl adjusted her white coat with a hand, swiveling in her stool without standing. 

“Uraraka Ochako,” she said as if she’d sent her an invitation and had long since been waiting for her arrival. Ochako felt Katsuki’s presence as he pulled up behind her silently and Recovery Girl glanced at him over her shoulder. “And the other one,” she added flippantly turning her attention back to Ochako.

When Katsuki didn’t automatically bite back at the nurse, no matter her age or position, Ochako tensed, ramrod straight. 

“Um,” she started, chiding herself for returning to her old stuttering habit. “Hi.”

Recovery Girl’s eyes shifted skeptically. 

“She passed out,” Katsuki helpfully offered, his gruff voice making it feel much worse than anything remotely helpful. 

Ochako stepped forward, raising a hand. “I didn’t pass out,” she said too quickly. Dropping her hand back to her side, she gathered herself, summoning as much pride as she could within arms reach of the tension wafting off Katsuki behind her. “I just got dizzy,” she explained.

A beat passed before Recovery Girl raised a brow and gestured for Ochako to take a seat on the edge of the infirmary bed closest to her. The woman walked her chair over to her and pulled out a thermometer, plucking it into Ochako’s mouth. “You’re both aware of the potential side effects Kami-Po warned you of?” she asked as she withdrew the dated glass rod and glanced at it before setting it on her desk and raising a tiny flashlight in front of Ochako’s eyes. “Headaches, dizziness, loss of consciousness…” she trailed off when Ochako hummed a yes. 

“But,” she added, “I didn’t faint. I just got a little dizzy and stumbled.”

“Hm,” the woman mumbled, noncommittally before scooting her chair back to look up at Ochako. “No training tonight,” she said clearly, casting a glance over her shoulder to Katsuki who frowned harder, if that was even possible, at the implication. “You can resume light exercise in the morning, but not alone. And stay hydrated.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ochako said quickly, digging her fingers into the clean, medical sheets beneath her itching to stand. 

Recovery Girl turned to Katsuki. 

His nostrils flared, but he answered the unspoken question. “Of course.”

“Good,” the nurse nearly huffed, spinning back to Ochako with a small tug at the corner of her lips. “Now go on. Get out of here.” Once she’d hopped off the bed and they were crossing the threshold, Recovery Girl called out, “And take it easy! I don’t want to see you back here tomorrow!” 

Ochako offered one more polite agreement over her shoulder before following Katsuki back into the hall. He walked ahead of her, not moving back the way they came, but toward the nearest exit to the open air. She trailed behind him, head hanging a bit more than she’d like to admit and when they came upon the glass double doors he shoved one open with an arm and stepped through before pausing on the other side until she passed by behind him. They walked back to the dorms in a bizarre silence and when she finally asked about their clothes and bookbags, he mumbled something about it already being taken care of and left her to wonder what the hell that meant. When they reached the elevators, Ochako silently moved to press the call button, but Katsuki intercepted her hand and dragged her away. 

He pulled her into the stairwell at the end of the hall and, before she could protest, knelt with his back to her and grabbed her thighs before jerking back upright. She squeaked, her arms flailing to wrap around his neck as he started climbing the steps. 

She would normally have leaned forward, pressing her face to his and harping over being able to walk  _ just fine _ , but, currently, she was a little afraid of what she’d see settled onto his sharp features. Instead, she let out a breezy, if not a little breathless, “What are you doing?”

“Tch, what the fuck does it look like I’m doing, Cheeks?” he grumbled, shifting her weight to take the steps two at a time. 

She fought the urge to petulantly respond with,  _ You know that’s not what I’m asking you, you big doof.  _

“Yeah,” she said, feeling more and more relaxed as they bobbed along until she was relishing in the nearness. The feel of him beneath her palms, against her skin, was naturally soothing in a way she hadn’t really expected. “I get that. But why?”

He didn’t answer her for an entire flight before quietly, he said, “I don’t like taking the elevator when I’m… upset.”

His last word whispered through the stairwell and cut straight to her heart. 

“I… I’m sorry,” she said back softly. “I didn’t mean to mess up the first time we were showing everyone--”

He stopped mid stride two steps from her floor and she snapped her mouth shut. Fingers tightened on her thighs through the fabric of her athletics uniform and she felt his lungs inflate to a dangerous capacity before he released all the air in a huff and marched the rest of the way to her room, throwing open both the door to the stairwell and her dorm. He pulled to an abrupt stop at the center of her room and dropped his hands for her to slide off his back and down to her faded, green rug. 

She knew Katsuki, she reminded herself. She knew him better than most people -- possibly better than anyone. She shouldn’t be panicking right now. This was her training partner. Her best friend. She’d seen him in plenty of furies inside the chamber, seen him at his most volatile and most gentle. He was stubborn and proud and thoughtful and doting. 

Something… wasn’t adding up.

He spun in a slow circle, his hands drifting up from his sides to cup her face even as his eyes bore down on hers with something kindling and unspoken burning behind them. 

“You think I’m  _ mad at you _ ?”

Her lips popped open, frozen solid under his gaze and suddenly every passing fear since they’d left the gym seemed so stupid and immature and  _ unfair _ . This was  _ Katsuki _ . Her Katsuki. This was the boy who braided her hair with a phony pout on his face and picked out her meals even when they were only rations and always --  _ always  _ \-- expected greatness from her and what had she expected from him the first time he flared a temper? 

She was supposed to know Katsuki better than anyone and she’d let him down believing the worst from him. But it was a mistake that she wouldn’t make again. 

Then, because she knew him, she answered his question without an  _ I’m sorry  _ or the tears she felt pricking at the back of her eyes or a long-winded explanation. She raised a palm to lay atop his on her face as she into his touch before lifting onto her toes. He dipped to meet her naturally and before she let her eyes fall shut, she saw the hard lines around his eyes, brows low and bent as he scanned her face for any sign, any hesitancy. 

She pressed her lips to his, begging him to understand. His thumbs brushed across the tender tops of her cheeks and she felt her body lean into him with a pull she’d long stopped trying to analyze and break apart to understand. His touch traced down her neck then the sides of her chest and she slipped her hands behind his neck. He held her to him by the sensitive place at her sides that curved to fall into her hips, raising hairs on her arms and sending a chill through her spine as she shook into his kiss. 

_ I’m sorry _ , she told him as she let her tongue trail across his bottom lip.  _ I know you _ . 

His kiss spoke to her just the same. He didn’t rush them to the bed at her back, didn’t stray his hands any further over her hard-earned muscled body, and he didn’t press his lips to hers or chase her tongue with his own, in any sort of haste, any sort of pressure. He was… gentle. 

And the moment she realized his feelings they were a beacon from his heart to hers. 

_ I was worried about you.  _

When she pulled away, dragging herself soft and slow, his eyes were still closed and his previous frown had moved from his lips to his brows. She rubbed away the worried tension with her thumbs, her fingerpads brushing over the small valley between his eyes. “Hey,” she said under her breath. “It’s okay. I should have known better… but I’m fine. Really.”

His lashes fluttered as he finally looked down at her, eyes dry but tinged with a red that didn’t match their inner fierce, piercing hue. She smiled at him weakly, aiming for something cute-looking, but his fingers tightened on her ribs and before she could react, he smoothed them over her back and pulled her to him. When she let her hands crawl up to his shoulder blades, he buried his face in her neck. 

“It should have been me.”

She barely heard him, his voice so muffled and choked from the pressure he clung to her with. A deep breath filled her chest, but sensing her coming response he moved, touching warm lips to the inside of her neck. He peppered soft, hot kisses into her skin and a wave of a sharp chill ran up her spine in pinpricks of anticipated pleasure. Her lips parted, but her words felt lost, weak and not nearly what she needed to tell him. The longer she waited, the further he pressed onward, his mouth trailing up to the sensitive skin behind her ear, his hands slowly exploring while still holding her desperately against him. 

Finally, when his hand curled around her back and slipped beneath her shirt, stroking over her bare hipbone, she managed to gasp out, “We don’t have any more condoms.”

“We don’t need to have sex,” he answered without pause. His kisses whispered over her jawline, moving with her when she squirmed beneath his touch. But when his lips touched down on the corner of her mouth, pulling away only slightly before he captured her kiss he’d worked so diligently for, she could no longer take it. 

“Stop,” she breathed. 

His hands stilled on her, the temperature in the room dropping like ice. Red eyes flew open to meet hers, a wary sort of panic in them that Ochako hadn’t seen since… since she’d started to feel the gym swimming in her vision. He didn’t speak, didn’t breathe, and the stillness was stiff in the wisp of space left between their lips. She dragged her hands to his cheeks, ghosting over his skin with this aching thing inside her that cried and sang and  _ pulled _ . 

Her thumb curved over the angles of his face, his eyes flickering between hers-- brittle, pieced together, and barely hanging on. 

“It’s not your fault,” she said softly. 

A muscle in Katsuki’s face twitched, his gaze darkening into a flood of everything he’d pushed so far away. His lips tensed, quivered. 

“It’s not your fault,” she repeated, swirling her thumbs over his face before leaning in and kissing him. 

She felt him crumble against her, but closed her eyes and crumbled with him. 

There was still a humming in her veins, still an omnipresent sort of feeling… so much like the void. It’s power was a hymn, haunting around the edges of her senses at all times, threatening another dizzy spell the moment she let her guard down and the idea of what that might mean was too much-- too big a fear. Overcoming had become her way of life in this last year, and yet, this was something fragile, something she didn’t want to touch.

It was a side effect. 

Nothing more. 

Right?

He poured himself into their kiss. The hands that had frozen in place, wandered once more, begging her toward him. She responded, molding herself into him the ways they’d long learned they fit together, and when she couldn’t tell whether the dizziness was from the sizzling hunger between their lips or some lingering foreignness from earlier, she turned them toward her bed. He let her lead them, following her all the way down to the soft sheets and crawling on top of her with a hand at her back to ease her up to her pillow along with him. 

They didn’t have any more condoms, but the way his kisses dragged out, ebbing and flowing with her slowing pace, she didn’t think that was really on his mind at the moment. Falling together, in a way so familiar and so new, she tucked herself into his shoulder, his arms curling around her as she let go of their kiss and pressed her face into his chest. 

The weight of her incident grew heavy in her mind, lingering even as she breathed in the smell of Katsuki, and faintly, amidst her worries of whether or not the two of them would be okay, she realized they were still in their athletics uniforms. 

But even that thought drifted away from her until she felt the gentle, familiar push of a kiss in her hair and exhaustion seeped in, winning her over as she lulled into sleep beneath the afternoon sun shining through her windows. 

  
  


-X-

  
  


This was weird. 

He knew it was weird, objectively, despite being able to rationalize it to himself over and over again as the elevator crept its ascent through the dorms of Heights Alliance. Still, it did not stop the incessance of his thoughts, repeating and repeating and repeating that this was, in fact,  _ weird _ . 

Why not Kirishima? 

Or Mina?

Or… 

Wait, did Kacchan have any other friends? 

Oh, Kaminari! Right, right, Kaminari. 

But Kacchan wouldn’t trust Kaminari with… well, anything. 

This wasn’t helping. 

The doors opened with a chime and his grip tightened on the bags hanging from his hands at his sides. He tried to use their weight to steady him. It’s not like this was  _ difficult _ . The challenge in today’s Hero Course was obviously more strenuous than such a small errand, and yet… yep, he was sweating. Great. 

He adjusted the bags in his hands to unlock his phone and glance at the message one more time just to be  _ sure  _ that it said the door would be unlocked. Surely this meant there would be nothing scandalous happening on the other side. Though that would hardly explain the need for him to be doing this in the first place but… 

One forced breath and he was stepping into the dorm through the smallest crack he could possibly make. 

Only to pause. 

It was quiet, aside from the soft snores of Uraraka who was no more than a lump of blankets with a mass of upended braid curled over the covers, her face hidden from sight. It was still bright outside, dusk an hour or two away, but she was sleeping soundly and something about her seemed so… peaceful. 

Which is when he finally managed to look at the snarling blond waiting for him to do literally anything. Awesome. Great! Cool. 

“Deku,” he whispered so harshly and so softly that Izuku had no idea whether to run or laugh or apologize. Instead, he moved the rest of the way into Uraraka’s room and quietly dropped their school bags, complete with both of their clothes-- Tsu having dutifully retrieved Uraraka’s from her locker to help. He eased back into the doorframe, dangerously unable to look away from the couple’s  _ cuddling _ . 

Why Kacchan texted  _ him,  _ of all people, Izuku wasn’t sure. 

Maybe he didn’t want his friends meddling around Uraraka, which made sense, considering they were all known to be generally quite loud. Or maybe it was the fact that Izuku knew about them, though, apparently everyone  _ knew _ about them at this point. But it was Izuku who had seen them… kissing. 

It was Izuku who had seen Kacchan’s face soften as he looked down at Izuku’s friend. 

As if he… 

“Get out.”

Izuku squeaked. “Yes, Kacchan!” 

  
  


-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol hi
> 
> Okay, so, first what happened was I watched all of Naruto, Shippuden, and Boruto for the first time in the span of a month SOOOOOOO that was a lot. 
> 
> Then I was in an accident at work and hurt my (already previously injured) knee. It's been a process of going through workers comp and dr visits and preemptive physical therapy and yeah. I'm still currently waiting to go to the orthopedic surgeon to evaluate a torn meniscus. SO. No idea if that will mean more physical therapy to recover or if I'm looking at surgery. But it's got me kinda depressed, so I've dyed my hair pink and taken to reading EXCESSIVE amounts of Naruto fanfiction to cope... but don't worry, this story is not abandoned. It's fully outlined through the end and some future scenes are prewritten. It just might be longer between updates for a little while for the sake of my mental health. 
> 
> I appreciate all of your love and support!! 
> 
> Please come harrass me on twitter: @jarynw02
> 
> Also, I've been periodically posting random things I've either written in the past or spontaneously thrown up in the last month or two... including a bnha/haikyuu/naruto/fruits basket crossover sooooo check that out please hahahaha it's wild. I just can't get over the idea of Bokuto and Bakugo as brothers for some reason. I'm obsessed. lol 
> 
> OK RANT OVER. 
> 
> Sorry for the shorter ish chapter... it was one longer chapter but i decided to split it up so you all would know I'm alive and give yall an update! 
> 
> thanks guyssss


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stage Day Qualifiers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAY!!!!!!
> 
> Honestly, I've struggled to get back into the swing of this story, and knowing how much my friend Ray loves it was enough to push me to finish this chapter for her birthday. 
> 
> So, everyone who is excited for the update, please go tell Ray happy birthday on Twitter!!!!! [[Here](https://twitter.com/slightlyasian97)]
> 
> RAYYYYY, thank you for being the Akaashi to my Bokuto. I hope you have a really, really great day. 
> 
> Aaaand the link for this chapter's playlist is [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7lbK5XVAW3LlXeD4sv1tYo?si=v2jpOUEdSSqNN8OTBlQQjQ)!

Ochako woke before Katsuki-- a rare, blessed occurrence. Somewhere, there was a part of her curious of the punishment for him staying in her dorm, but that fear was a whisper compared to the sight of him curled around her, his soft breath mingling into her hair at the crown of her head. It was still dark and her phone wasn’t on the corner of her nightstand where she could check the time and though his arms were tight around her waist, she was too awake to try and let herself drift away to join him in his dreams once more. 

So she shifted, slowly, carefully. He made room for her as naturally as his chest rose and fell and when she’d turned to face him, she raised a hand to his cheek, dragging fingerpads across the tender skin. A smile rose on her face in the silence, her eyes falling shut in the peace between them. 

He was here. He was hers. 

His breathing changed and she peeked open an eye to find him watching her with heavy lids. A moment passed between them before he sucked in air and stretched, his hands pressing into her sides as his body rocked through his awakening. Her hand stayed latched to his cheek and he turned his face to place a sweet, morning kiss into her palm. 

Everything felt stunningly, quietly perfect once again. 

He braided her hair before ducking out of her dorm and they met again on the concrete steps of Height’s Alliance fully dressed for a workout. If Katsuki was concerned about her pushing herself too hard, he didn’t say anything. Still, she noticed his eyes slipping over to her more often than normal as they pressed out into the pre-dawn hours in a light jog. A second skin of cool sweat slipped along her spine and stretched out over her limbs as they bobbed with the bounce in her steps. 

It was peaceful, familiar. 

Katsuki likely noticed the group of boys ahead of them before Ochako did, back when they’d first followed the bend of the sidewalk around the southern corner of the furthest academic building, but she knew he wouldn’t have even considered acknowledging them. 

She, however, smiled. 

“Deku!” she called out, a grin lighting across her cheeks that she expected him to return, but when her friend turned a peek over his shoulder, slowing his jog, he faltered as his eyes fell on Katsuki. 

“Ah, uh, hey!” he stammered out as the two boys at his flanks eased up their pace as well, casting dry looks back at the couple. Deku managed to recover quickly, turning his attention back to Ochako. “Good morning, Uraraka! Kacchan!”

“Deku,” Katsuki greeted with a twitch of his lip, fighting a scowl. Ochako rolled her eyes, pushing back her amusement at his discomfort. “Icyhot. Transfer.”

Todoroki and Shinsou muttered their hellos, carefully aiming them more to Ochako than Katsuki. The two of them caught up to their small group quickly, already seeming to be in the process even before the boys had slowed for them. 

Ochako fell into step in their wadded formation easily, content with the added company. “Thanks for bringing my stuff by yesterday, Deku.”

“Oh! No problem, heh.” The boy’s green eyes flickered toward Katsuki for a moment and Ochako had to stop her frown from showing. All her things from both her classroom and gym lockers had been in her room this morning and Katsuki had begrudgingly explained how Deku had brought them by for her after she’d fallen asleep. 

At first, she’d only been concerned Deku might be going a little too far out of his way for her, and maybe  _ that  _ was what put the disgruntled downward slope on Katsuki’s lips, but now she was starting to consider the idea that something else happened between them while she’d been asleep. 

But Katsuki didn’t react to the brief, awkward conversation, instead choosing to stare daggers through the path ahead, lit by the slowly rising sun in the first, yawning breath of a new day. 

Ochako tried to shrug off the boys’ gloomy atmosphere. “Do you guys always run in the mornings?”

“Unfortunately,” Shinsou answered, his voice small enough that she couldn’t tell whether he’d meant to answer her at all. 

Deku, apparently, was unaware of his friend’s misgivings. “Hey! This is fun!”

“Fun?” Todoroki said, a glint of sweat on his temple visible to Ochako as he glanced over at the shorter boy. “Not really. Necessary, though,” he amended. 

“Hn,” Katsuki grunted in affirmation at her side and she almost jerked around to look at him, but refrained. He wouldn’t like the attention and besides, she remembered that he and Todoroki had become some semblance of friends last year. 

Friends probably wasn’t the right word. 

Allies, maybe. 

“Well, I’m having fun!” Deku declared and if he could cross his arms while jogging and look vaguely competent, Ochako was sure he would. 

Todoroki and Shinsou turned to him in tandem, their eyes placatingly blank. Deku looked between them, suddenly frazzled before setting his face forward, a hint of a blush peppering through the freckles across his cheeks. Ochako watched Shinsou seem to internally debate whether he’d upset his friend before dismissing the interaction and continuing on their jog, but Todoroki’s eyes… lingered. 

Interesting. 

Ochako snuck a peek at Katsuki, trying to gauge whether he saw the too-long-to-be-casual glance. He met her eyes, letting her flit her gaze up to Todoroki and back before widening in expectation, then he snorted softly and focused on his run. 

Her brows dropped and she  _ casually  _ knocked into his side in revenge, offering his responding glare an apologetic  _ oops!  _

Katsuki didn’t seem soothed, but also didn’t seem bothered. 

She grinned inwardly. 

The group emerged from behind the academic building together, a straight shot of pavement ahead that would take them back to the dorms. There was still a good amount of time before classes and if they only grabbed something light for breakfast, then maybe…

“Race?” she asked Katsuki as they approached the last split in the sidewalk that could take them on another lap, her eyes wide and eager for a little competition to help smooth out the remaining wrinkles in her pride from yesterday. 

But Katsuki didn’t look at her first. He scanned the campus, looking ahead to Height’s Alliance before responding. “I’m gonna head back,” he said, “but you should kick these guys’ asses just fine without me.”

She almost stopped running. 

A second too long passed before Deku was turning in his jog, nearly tripping over his feet as he continued his pace facing backward. “We’ll race you, Uraraka! No biggie. Right guys?”

Shinsou frowned. “She’s gonna slaughte—”

Deku silenced him with an elbow to the ribs, throwing off his balance a bit so he had to turn back around. 

Todoroki shrugged, glancing back. “Yeah,” he said, cooly. “We can do some sprints. We have time.”

The three of them took the fork, turning onto the sidewalk that bordered the front of the building lined with concrete stairs all across its length and she paused with Katsuki, calling out to the boys that she’d catch up. 

When she looked up at him he was noticeably uncomfortable, which, frankly, didn’t help the tension thickening in her chest. 

“Is everything okay?”

Her concern seemed to soften his stiff, awkward stance and he reached a hand to her hip, drawing her closer, and a blush sparked over her cheeks. 

“Yeah,” he said casually, brushing a thumb along her jaw with his other hand. “Just a few things I wanna do before class. Take care of yourself?”

She rolled her eyes at him, trying to hide the way her teeth pulled at her bottom lip in response to his nearness and his worry. 

“ _ Yes, sir _ ,” she answered, trying to be coy, but his eyes darkened. He drew her in, his size swallowing her as he pressed his lips to hers and she counted the breaths that passed between them. 

Then he pulled away, his eyes roving over her from head to toe in a cheeky way that made her stick her tongue out at him. He grinned, wide and furious, before waving her off and heading back to the dorms. 

When she caught up to the other boys, she was still smiling. 

  
  
  


-X-

  
  
  


She didn’t see Katsuki again before class, though the walk across campus with Tsu and Iida had been a pleasant way to catch up. Neither said anything about Katsuki or the chamber and she was surprisingly grateful. 

When her surly blond companion finally stepped into the classroom, she met him with an unsure glance. He raised a hand with two bentos carefully wrapped in plain cloth and she grinned up at him, excited for her new lunch plans. Aizawa-sensei cleared his throat to start class just as she was turned in her seat debating whether she wanted to lean over Katsuki’s desk to kiss him. 

She faced forward and channeled all her focus for the school day ahead. 

Then, when the chime finally came, she twisted around to Katsuki so fast that Kirishima flinched away beside them before chuckling and following the rest of the class to the cafeteria. The room cleared slowly and if anyone noticed the two of them lingering behind, Ochako was completely oblivious. She met Katsuki’s eyes, her own shining with the idea of eating a lunch he made with actual food rather than the bizarre sustenance they were used to inside the chamber. 

He eventually snorted a quiet laugh, breaking their stare down, before sliding out of his desk to retrieve their bentos from his locker and presenting them on his desktop. 

Ochako wiggled her eager fingers, practically bouncing in her seat. “I’m so excited!” 

“Obviously,” he said dryly, untying his cloth covering and gesturing for her to do the same. 

She took her time undoing the knot, laying down each corner of the wrap meticulously. “When did you have time to do this?” 

He raised a brow at her, though whether he meant to tell her the answer was obvious or to show his annoyance at her painstaking pace of unpacking the lunch, she wasn’t sure. 

“It’s why I left the run early.”

She frowned, opening the small box. The miniature onigiri made it hard to keep the tight expression on her face as she instantly reached for one to pop in her mouth. She looked up at him before adding a second. “Then why didn’t you just tell me that?”

“Surprise?” he said awkwardly, the joke very out of character for him. She tilted her head at him, whipping her hair over her shoulder with a sharp throw of her head before reaching for a neatly sliced strawberry. He was quiet for a moment, then sighed. “My parents want to make us dinner tonight.”

“Ooh,” she hummed, swallowing her food. “That’ll be… fun. Is that why you cooked lunch?”

His eyes scanned over her face, settling on her poorly tamed hair. Nodding, he rose from his chair to move behind her, sinking his fingers into the thick brown hair trailing down her back and made quick work of a loose braid. Over her shoulder, he said, “I wanted you to eat my food before you try my dad’s.”

“It’s good then?” she asked, inspecting the braid as he returned to his seat. 

He grunted. “Mine’s better.”

  
  


-X-

  
  
  


Gamma Gym was almost unrecognizable as the entirety of Class 1A filed in through the double doors to a waiting Aizawa-sensei, flanked by a slight elderly woman who leaned over her cane with a prominent hunch in her back. The two of them watched as Ochako entered alongside her peers, Katsuki’s presence rising up behind her until she felt his hand at the small of her back, but the class wouldn’t be paying much mind to any public displays of affection with everything going on around them. 

A massive red carpet of sorts had been rolled out across the center of the gym, a long, rectangular stage of risers at its head housing bizarre technological-looking… punching bags? Each sleek silver machine held a flat, round cushion at chest height in a bright red color and Ochako quickly took to counting them before her attention would be forced toward her teacher. 

Eighteen. Not twenty. 

She and Katsuki would likely not be participating today. 

Chewing her lip, she drew to a stop with the rest of the crowd and tried not to feel like they were on a game show or something. 

“Alright,” Aizawa-sensei started, dull eyes scanning over their faces. “This will be the qualifiers for Kami-Po’s Stage Day tomorrow. They only need eight participants and have specific goals in choosing the six who will join Uraraka and Bakugou. This,” he gestured briefly to the woman beside him who studied them through narrow, wrinkled eyes, “is Babba. She’ll be moderating today’s test.”

A whisper of a smile rose on her thin, brittle lips and her yellowing fingers wrapped tighter around the glass ball at the tip of her cane. “Thank you,” she said with a dip of her chin to Aizawa-sensei. “Behind you all are Power Machines specifically developed by Kami-Po Industries to gauge destructive capabilities. Your task is to, simply, destroy the cushion of the machine. It will calculate a score based on damage dealt and then you will be ranked. The top six will join the two from the time chamber in tomorrow’s Stage Day events for our board, investors, and an array of pro heroes scouting out the benefits of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.” 

Her voice shook with age as she made her way through the announcement before she stepped aside, gesturing toward the machines with a wordless welcome. Aizawa-sensei blinked at all of them slowly, as if the class was being particularly dense. 

“Alright,” he droned out over the small crowd. “First up, Aoyama.”

The blond in question hesitated for a moment and Ochako shifted on her feet, naturally leaning a little close to Katsuki beside her, before Aoyama finally stepped away from the class and took to the low stage. He approached the strange punching bag with a fascination, a twitch in his hands at his sides making Ochako think he was a little nervous to be on the spot.

“Go ahead,” Babba said from the side. “Destroy it.”

Aoyama glanced over at Aizawa-sensei one last time before he braced his footing and raised his hands up behind his head. His laser shoots out with a beaming screech that sliced through the room, completely decimating the red cushion, leaving only the stalk of the machine below. 

“Very good,” Babba’s low voice warbled as it rose above the aftermath. “Next.”

The process continued like that, tediously. Ochako assumed that Babba needed them to go one at a time to be able to judge them all herself. Mina’s acid completely ruined the red cushion until it was indistinguishable, but Tsu seemed to struggle a bit more after her, despite having some acidic powers herself. The advantages and disadvantages in their classmates' quirks were quickly made apparent as those like Tooru, Jirou, and Kouda obviously struggled. Iida’s kick did enough damage to the content, as well as Deku’s and Kirishima’s punch completely stabbed straight through the bag. Kaminari burnt his cushion to a crisp, though Todoroki’s fire was likely going to be much more efficient. 

It was during the lapse of action between Mineta all the way through Shouji that Ochako started to wonder about what Stage Day was really going to be like. Kami-Po didn’t say they wanted the  _ strongest  _ of the class. They wanted the most destructive to test against herself and Katsuki. 

“Why are you thinking so hard? You’ll hurt yourself,” a low voice whispered beside her. 

She craned her neck up to Katsuki to stick her tongue out at him. “Ha. Ha. You’re so funny.”

He raised a brow at her in response, holding his attention on the stage before them. 

A beat passed before she sighed. “I’m just curious why they don’t want the best of the class, just the ones that can cause the most physical damage.”

If she was a bit nervous, well that was neither here nor there. 

“Money, probably,” Katsuki answered her, watching Satou’s sugar rush hit him in time for him to punch his red cushion. It still paled in comparison to Deku’s or Kirishima’s hits. “They’re trying to show off to get people to use the chamber. If they can show how we can minimize showboating destruction, that’s a better appeal for the pros.”

“Huh,” she hummed without thinking. “You’re probably right.”

His hand landed on her head, jostling her a bit. “Of course I am.”

She stuck her tongue out at him again. 

Todoroki did, in fact, set a much better fire than Kaminari’s electricity could, though Ochako felt that he wasn’t really giving the task his all. Dark Shadow actually obliterated his entire power machine in one fell swoop and Momo pulled a bomb right out of her stomach to detonate it directly on her cushion, sending shrapnel flying through the gymnasium. 

Once they were all done and the last effects of Momo’s explosion were settled, Aizawa-sensei and Babba moved back to the center of the stage to address them. Their teacher’s arms were crossed, the same dull tone in his eyes clearly showing he’d much rather be taking a nap than here to moderate this event. 

“Good job everyone,” Babba said quietly, the class hushing in response to hear her better. “The following students will be bussed to Kami-Po’s event stadium tomorrow morning with Bakugou Katsuki and Uraraka Ochako. Stage Day will begin first thing in the afternoon.”

Suddenly, a hand touched down on the small of Ochako’s back and she blinked up at Katsuki, but he was still looking straight ahead. She leaned into his touch, trying to understand what might be going through his head. 

“Ashido Mina, Kirishima Eijiro, Midoriya Izuku, Todoroki Shouto, Tokoyami Fumikage, and Yaoyorozu Momo. Thank you.”

Aizawa-sensei stifled a yawn.

“You’re all dismissed.”

  
  
  


-X-

  
  
  


“Maybe I shouldn’t have worn a skirt.”

“It has pleats,” Katsuki mumbled under his breath as he tugged her along down the sidewalk. The train ride across town to the Bakugou’s neighborhood had been both too long and too short, though Katsuki seemed overwhelmingly nonplussed by the whole ordeal. “You’ll be fine.”

“Maybe I should have worn something more casual?” Ochako continued her spoken thoughts, fidgeting with her belt. “Jeans and a tee-shirt probably would have been fine and these  _ barely  _ fit-”

Katsuki pulled to an abrupt stop, jarring Ochako’s shoulders through their combined hands. 

“Cheeks.”

An incoherent string of non-words wrestled around behind Ochako’s lips and Katsuki reached up to cup her chin in his fingers. 

“Seriously,” he said, red eyes sharp and flickering between hers. “It’s gonna be fine. They already think you’re dipped in gold and are just gonna spend the night harassing me.” 

A deep blush rose across her face, gentle and warm like the petals of a rose. She blinked the moment away, desperately collecting herself. 

“Alright,” she answered, softly, voice rough. “Alright.”

A snorted breath rocked through Katsuki’s chest before he leaned down to touch a kiss to her forehead. “Let’s get this over with.”

Katsuki’s childhood home wasn’t exactly how Ochako had pictured it, though if she’d been asked before seeing it, she wouldn’t have had anything to go off of. Still, she somehow wasn’t expecting it to be so… normal. Something about the Bakugous had always been larger than life for her, whether it be Katsuki himself or his stories of his father’s work and cooking or his mother’s taste in hobbies. She knew that they had more money than her family, most did, but the wealth of the Bakugous wasn’t spent showboating, rather upkeeping. The lawn was perfectly manicured, the second-story windows gleaming and bright in the low evening light. 

Ochako had spent the entirety of the walk up the path from the street mentally preparing herself for knocking on the door only for Katsuki to barge right in.  _ Of course  _ he wouldn’t have to knock at his own house! She felt like an idiot and she already knew that this was about to be so incredibly awkward especially since she hadn’t even met a boyfriend’s parents before. 

Though, she supposed, she’d never really had a boyfriend before either so there’s that. 

“Oi!” Katsuki barked, toeing off his shoes in the entryway. “We’re here!” 

“ _ Katsuki!”  _

Ochako followed Katsuki’s lead, swapping her flats for guest slippers while she waited for him to let go of her hand and slip away before his mother came running. 

He didn’t. 

“Took you long enough!” Mitsuki accused, jutting out a finger in Katsuki’s direction the moment she crossed into their view. “How dare you keep your new girlfriend from us! And look at you! Why would you go and grow on me like that, huh?!” 

Katsuki tightened his grip slightly, his irritation small, but palpable. “Chill out, it’s been like, three days! And I’m  _ so  _ sorry for growing, fuck!” 

His mother crossed the threshold so fast Ochako almost took a reflexive step back. 

Then she wacked Katsuki upside the head. 

“Is that any way to talk to your mother?!” she scolded him, fire in her eyes. “After an entire year apart?!”

Katsuki was not deterred as he rose to his mother’s challenge, still holding Ochako’s hand. “It was one day!” 

“Not for you!” she yelled back, just as prickly. “You spent an entire  _ year  _ on your own and-  _ God _ , why did we sign those permission slips?” 

Masaru hummed noncommittally as he entered the dwindling space before immediately turning toward Ochako. “Welcome to our home,” he said, smiling, “How about we get a little further into the house?”

Ochako bowed her head on instinct. “Thank you for inviting me into your home.”

There was a silence, Katsuki’s hand still in hers, unmoving, before Masaru chuckled. She picked her head up quickly to find kind eyes looking back at her through glimmering glasses. 

“Thank you for taking care of our son.”

  
  


-X-

  
  


Bakugou Masaru had always been a simple man of simple pleasures. The textures of fabric had enticed him into fashion decades ago, the warm look on a person’s face after a good meal leading him into cooking. The intricacy within the simple had always been a curious thing for him, like the way accessories can change an entire outfit and an extra spice can transform a dish. 

His son might not ever be quite as simple as Masaru, but Katsuki did have the same flair for detail, for the small things left unsaid but exposed themselves so clearly in subtle ways. 

Masaru was proud. 

Ochako quickly abandoned her noticeable anxiety after a little prodding from Mitsuki, which was honestly necessary to survive in her presence for longer than a few minutes-- all a part of her charm. And it was a charm, Mitsuki’s fire, it was a charm with two sides that Katsuki also inherited. Fire like that comes from somewhere deep down, from passion and persistence that no ordinary person could possibly hope to possess. 

So while Mitsuki heckled Ochako into conversations, quickly stirring up embarrassing stories and asking much too personal of questions all through dinner, Masaru watched Katsuki. 

He watched the way Katsuki snuck his chair just a hair’s breadth closer to Ochako’s as they sat, the way he slipped an extra dumpling onto her plate when she wasn’t looking, and the way that his son watched his girlfriend’s face as she took her first bite of Masaru’s mochi. When Ochako grinned, cheeks puffed out and full of the dessert, thanking Masaru, Katsuki visibly relaxed. 

When Mitsuki tugged Ochako into the living room to go through photo albums, Masaru caught Katsuki before he could rage and follow them. 

“Help me with the dishes?” 

Katsuki froze, body turned toward Ochako and his mother as he looked back at Masaru. After a lingering pause, he nodded, joining Masaru in the kitchen.

He’d already tidied up most of the cooking before either of the kids had arrived, but he wasn’t about to tell his son that. 

“Dry for me?” 

Katsuki nodded, quiet in the way that meant he was thinking, his brain stuck on something and Masaru knew from experience that it was usually something he wanted to get off his chest but he just couldn’t figure out quite how to do it. Even knowing, Masaru gave him time, letting him sidle up beside him at the sink. 

Two dishes in, Katsuki finally caved. 

“I love her.”

Carefully, Masaru didn’t falter in his circular motions on the sud-covered pan in his grip. He waited a few more passes with the sponge before answering with, “I know.”

They continued on with the dishes in comfortable silence, but when everything was done and put away and Masaru turned toward the girls in the other room, Katsuki stayed put against the kitchen counter. Masaru faced him, patiently waiting for whatever else Katsuki wanted him to know. 

His son’s eyes flickered to him for a moment before zipping over to the living room when Ochako’s laugh rang through the house. A heavy breath raised Katsuki’s broad shoulders, broader than Masaru’s own now. 

“She loves me too,” Katsuki finally said, voice low like he was young again and telling him a secret he didn’t want his mother to know. 

Katsuki might have grown bigger and taller during whatever hero training he underwent, but in a moment like this, Masaru couldn’t help but recognize the depths Katsuki had grown inwardly. He was patient, attentive, and now sharing his vulnerabilities with his father, all in his own way.

Masaru let his smile grow across his cheeks, warm and welcoming to his only son. 

“I know.”

  
  
  
  
  


-X-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're still here, THANK YOU. 
> 
> My comment section is so full of love and I'm so, so grateful for how understanding all of you have been! 
> 
> I'm still replying to comments on the last chapter, but I did end up having knee surgery back in September and I am now fully recovered! Weeeeeee!! 
> 
> Let me know what you guys thought! Was I rusty? 
> 
> See ya next chapter!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [the view from the top](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28748199) by [sprx77](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprx77/pseuds/sprx77)




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